Rónán MacNamara in Royal Troon
Shane Lowry showed courage, determination and an ability to forget after he got knocked down on the 11th but responded in tremendous style to hit the front at the 152nd Open Championship.
After moving two shots clear on seven-under with a birdie at the Postage Stamp, Lowry took a whopping 28 minutes to play the par-4 11th after his second shot out of the fescue hooked left and into the gorse after he was distracted by a camera man.
Having played a provisional into the heart of the green a sheepish looking fan found the original ball before realising it was a ball that Lowry would have preferred to be lost.
It wasn’t quite Jordan Spieth at Birkdale in 2017 but after taking his drop Lowry managed to limit the damage to a double bogey six. It was a result.
“I drew a nice lie in the rough. I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought. You’re so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left,” Lowry explained in his post round press conference.
“Just there was a cameraman there, and he was walking up, and I asked him to stop or move back, and he just kind of stayed there. As it was over, he put his camera up. I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I should stood off it, my own fault.
“Then from there, I hit a great provisional. The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was okay. Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn’t, you didn’t have to go and identify it.
“I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes, it was whatever it was, of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing, and I felt like Darren did a great job too just kind of — he kept telling me, we have loads of time. We don’t need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing.
“I was happy enough leaving there with a 6. It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
What was more important was his response. A two-putt par on the brutal par-4 12th steadied affairs and a momentum seven foot par save on 14 settled the Offaly man down and he powered to the finish.
The 2019 Open winner almost eagled the par-5 16th and brought the grandstands to their feet again as he drew a huge roar with a closing birdie on 18 for the second day running to claw back the two shots he had lost on 11 and re-establish his two shot advantage over Dan Brown.
“I think the 12th hole for me was key. 12 was playing very difficult, straight into the wind. I hit driver, 4-iron there too, the best shots I’ve hit all week, to about 30 feet and made par there. From then on, I felt like down out of the left coming in, it was playing quite difficult, but I felt like you could give yourself chances on the way in, and that’s what I did.”
Lowry has long been associated as a man for the big occasion so it is perhaps no surprise that his best major championship finishes have been in the two toughest fields (2019 Open WON, T2 2016 US Open).
A strong front runner, if Lowry could close out to win a second Claret Jug this weekend in South Ayrshire, he would stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the great golfers to have played the game.
Why? Anyone can win the Open Championship. It’s the largest field, anyone can qualify. It’s on a different golf course year after year. The weather is crucial, the draw is vital and an ability to remain mentally focused for five and a half hours for four straight days is a mammoth task.
The Masters and PGA Championship fields are smaller yet bloated by a series of irrelevancies.
Augusta grant lifetime exemptions to previous champions and welcome a collection of amateurs, between old timers and rookies there really is only a portion of the field to beat. The same can be said for the PGA Championship. The least glamorous of the four majors where club professionals and more past champions are competing alongside the elite.
The US Open and Open are truly the toughest of major examinations.
Anything can happen over the next 36 holes in Royal Troon both good and bad. The eleventh hole is proving particularly difficult and while Lowry did lose his train of thought by the railway line he responded like a true champion golfer.
Winning in Royal Troon would cement Lowry as one of the greats of the game. He would arrive in Royal Portrush next year as the defending Open champion as well as the defending course champion. It would be quite the feat.
The 37-year-old admitted to feeling his age earlier in the week when it comes to longevity at the top level before Pádraig Harrington reminded him that he had one of his best seasons at that age.
What words of wisdom that could prove to be with Lowry on the cusp of making the FedEx Cup’s Tour Championship at the end of the year for the first time during a period where he has enjoyed one of his most consistent seasons on the PGA Tour including winning Stateside for the first time since 2015.
A second Open title would see him climb alongside Harrington, Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer as two-time Claret Jug holders.
“I think if I give myself a chance on Sunday, I know I can do it. That’s as good a position to be in as any,” said a bullish Lowry.
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