Shane Lowry is a dangerous man when comfortable in his own skin. This was one of those days, where Lowry ventured from the car park in the cold at the Innisbrook resort in Palm Harbor, Florida, wondering what lay ahead ... only to find not only a hot putter, but every part of his game working in sync.
If his walk from the car to the locker room and onwards to the range started with a sense of uncertainty, there was much to admire about his navigating of the Copperhead course and, especially, the notorious snake pit – that stretch of three holes from the 16th to the 18th – where Lowry was more akin to a snake-charmer.
A superbly crafted second round 67 for a midway total of four-under-par 138 saw Lowry move into contention in the Valspar Championship trailing clubhouse leaders Viktor Hovland, his Ryder Cup team-mate, and Japan’s Ryo Hisatune by a stroke.
Lowry’s consistency so far this season has been admirable, including a runner-up finish behind Rory McIlroy in the AT&T Pebble Beach along with contending in the recent Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill.
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Playing for a fourth straight week on the PGA Tour, and now very comfortable with his new Srixon driver, Lowry produced a stunning outward nine of 29 strokes – six birdies and three pars – to leapfrog his way into the lead before a homeward run that brought speed bumps with two bogeys.
Lowry’s round started on the 10th with a birdie, from eight feet, and he just kept on going. Indeed, his round – in difficult cool conditions with a gusting wind – began with three straight birdies, getting up and down from a greenside bunker on the Par 5 11th, and holing from six feet on the 12th and claiming another from nine feet on the 14th.
It was his play of the notorious snake pit, though, that earned most ground on the field. On the Par 4 16th, he holed out from just off the green, from 35 feet, and then hit his tee shot on the Par 3 17th to 14 feet and rolled that birdie putt in too.
“I just got it going. I got some nice numbers and then hit some good shots, and when I hit good shots I converted the putts. I played that nine holes pretty flawlessly, didn’t really miss many shots. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as good on the other nine, but I think 4-under on a day like today, if you had given me that in the locker room this morning I would have taken it,” said Lowry, who had 25 putts in his round.
He added: “I know it’s a course that had been quite wet the last few days, but with this wind it’s kind of whipping up especially with the cold this morning those get firmer. And it’s just tricky, it’s just, it’s hard to hit a load of fairways, it’s hard to hit loads of greens, and you just need to be on your game. I think it’s one of the underrated golf courses that we play all year, I think it’s a great track.”
While Lowry moved his way into contention headed into the weekend, Séamus Power – the only other Irish player in the field – ensured his presence for the final two rounds in adding a 72 to his opening 70 for a 36-holes total of level par 142 to be comfortably inside the cut line.
