Shane Lowry’s ticket into the season-ending DP World Tour Championship at The Earth course in Dubai came via a circuitous, even fortuitous, route – a special exemption as a member of Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team. But the Offaly man has made the most of his presence to move into contention after a bogey-free second round 67 for a total of nine-under-par 135 lifted him into a share of second place, three shots behind midway leader Nicolai Hojgaard.
Ranked 112th in the Race to Dubai standings with the Tour Championship confined to the leading 50 available players, Lowry – along with Ludvig Aberg – were granted spots in the field for their Ryder Cup endeavours in the tournament which has a $10 million purse.
And Lowry, still looking for a first win of a season where he primarily focused on the PGA Tour in the USA (where he had runners-up finishes in the Pebble Beach pro-am and the Truist Championship), produced a superb second round of five birdies and 13 pars to move into a five-way share of second, with Rory McIlroy – on course for a seventh career order of merit title for the Harry Vardon Trophy – also on that mark.
“It felt like I just plodded my way around the course well and played my game around here,” admitted Lowry. “It’s easy to get into trying to hit it hard and long off certain tee shots. But I just played my own game, put it in position. I drove it great today and my putter feels good, so yeah, I’m pretty happy.”
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McIlroy had more of a grind, following up his opening 66 with a 69 where he worked hard right to the end. Indeed, his par save on the par-5 18th hole, characterised his grit. After driving into the left rough, he effectively topped his next shot and then pulled his third wide of the creek beside the grandstand, only to execute a brilliant up and down to save par.
A round of six birdies and three bogeys contrasted with his first round’s play where he seemed in cruise control. This time, it was, as he put it, a “battle”.
“I missed a couple more fairways today. And when I did miss the fairways, I got some really bad lies, like the worst lies I’ve seen this week. You know, I didn’t even get it back on to the fairway at the last and had to scramble there. But I felt like I showed my scoring skills today, and you know, battled well and stayed patient, and got the ball up-and-down when I needed to. And overall, you know, to shoot 69, I’m pretty pleased considering some of the spots that I found myself,” admitted McIlroy, the tournament’s defending champion.
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Marco Penge, McIlroy’s main pursuer for the order of merit title, added a 70 to his opening 74 to lie in tied-44th to make any prospect of overtaking the Northern Irishman an extremely remote one, while Tyrrell Hatton – who must win and still rely on McIlroy finishing outside the top-8 – improved with a 67 for 137 to lie in tied-11th.
Tom McKibbin shot a second successive 70 for 140 to be in tied-21st.
Hojgaard made a flying birdie-eagle start to his round and turned in 30 but managed only one birdie on the homeward run – on the 14th – to sign for a 65 for 132 to claim a three strokes 36-holes lead over the quintet of Lowry, McIlroy, Daniel Hillier, Justin Rose and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen.
A winner of the tournament in 2023, Hojgaard attributed his play so far to patience. “I know there’s plenty of chances out there. It’s easy to make a silly bogey out of being a little bit too aggressive. So trying to navigate my way out there a little bit. Staying patient has probably been the highlight so far.”
