Shane Lowry’s body language told the tale. The twirl of the club after impact, the wince on the occasional mishit, but more often a smile breaking out: for, in opening with a three-under-par 69 in tough conditions at Bay Hill Country Club in Orlando, the Offaly man played his way into contention in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, one of the select $20 million signature events on the PGA Tour.
Lowry’s opening round left him in tied-second, two shots behind Wyndham Clark, the 2023 US Open champion, who birdied the 18th for a 67, while Rory McIlroy – who played alongside Lowry in difficult, windy conditions on a firm course – signed for a 70, in tied-sixth.
The two amigos moved in tandem around Arnie’s Place, both moving into challenging conditions. Just five weeks ago, the pair had battled it out down the stretch in the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am where McIlroy claimed the title and Lowry the runners-up spot.
Again, both continued that form on a challenging course. As Lowry admitted of sitting in the locker room ahead of his warm-up and the round itself, “I wasn’t looking forward to it too much, the conditions were really tough.”
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Yet, when the questions were asked, Lowry had most of the answers.
A round that featured an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys moved Lowry, the world number 17, into a strong challenging position after day one. The eagle came on the Par 5 16th where his tee shot finished marginally off the fairway in the first cut and he then hit a wonderful approach shot from 195 yards, over the trees, to seven feet.
Lowry finished third in this tournament last year, behind Scottie Scheffler, at a time when he needed a sponsor’s exemption. This time, he is fully exempt into all the signature events and playing like a man on a mission to add to his tally of career titles.
With a new Srixon driver in the bag – he had 15 of them on the range pre-tournament – Lowry explained of the “tinkering” he has been undertaking:
“I think there’s something wrong with the driver I was using last week (at the Cognizant) for a few days. I used something different on Sunday and I used something different again today. So I don’t have a hundred per cent trust in that yet, but I did hit some really nice drives there towards the end, apart from 18.
“I’m pretty happy with what I have in the bag, I just need to be able to stand up on holes like 18 and trust myself to start it down the left and commit to that shot. As the week goes on hopefully I’ll do that and, yeah, you never know where it will leave me!”
For McIlroy, like Lowry, a closing bogey on the 18th provided a disappointing finish. In touching on the mindset the two friends are required to adopt when paired together in tournament play, McIlroy observed: “I think we both have to make a conscious effort to not make it too comfortable.
“It’s like if you’re too relaxed, that’s not a good thing either. So we try to treat it as if it’s just any other round. I certainly talk to him more than I talk to some other guys out there, but you still have to try to concentrate, and especially on a day like today when it was so tough.”
Meanwhile, in the Puerto Rico Open, also on the PGA Tour, Dubliner Max Kennedy – playing on a sponsor’s invite – shot an opening round of five-under-par 67 to lie in tied-20th of a first round incomplete due to fading light after a number of weather interruptions.
