Shane Lowry roared into contention at the The Players with a stunning hole-in-one at one of golf’s most iconic par-3s, the 17th at TPC Sawgrass, on Sunday night.
Lowry’s tee shot on the 124-yard par three pitched around 10 feet beyond the hole and spun back into the cup to spark wild celebrations from the 34-year-old Irishman, who celebrated with Ryder Cup team-mate Ian Poulter on the tee.
After retrieving his ball Lowry threw it into the crowd and the lucky spectator who ended up with it following a brief scramble quickly made his way to beside the 18th tee to get Lowry to sign it.
HOLE-IN-ONE AT THE ISLAND GREEN @ShaneLowryGolf makes the 10th ace on No. 17 in @THEPLAYERSChamp history. pic.twitter.com/HqSYe4XuZh
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 13, 2022
The eagle lifted Lowry, who has also made a hole-in-one on the 16th at Augusta National during the Masters, to four under par, four shots off the lead.
Rory McIlroy survived the cut in the stop-start, weather-hampered tournament by the skin of his teeth thanks to a helping hand from Henrik Norlander, who bogeyed his closing hole.
McIlroy added a second 73 for 146 and was left waiting on tenterhooks to see if he would survive the cut and it was only after Norlander bogeyed the 18th that the Northern Irishman survived on the cutline in tied-65th. Had Norlander parred, McIlroy was out.
India's Anirban Lahiri, seeking to make history as the country's first winner of the Players, birdie at the 11th immediately before golf was suspended to sit alone atop the leaderboard at nine under.
Séamus Power is also among the 71 players who made it into the final 36-holes of the €18 million tournament, the flagship event of the PGA Tour, but one badly affected by the weather front which settled over the Jacksonville area of Florida for the opening two days and forced the players into a catch-up scenario.
Power, apart from challenging for the title, has a subplot of staying inside the world’s top-50 with his eye on an exemption into the Masters next month, and completed the final two holes of his round with a par on the 17th and a bogey on the tough 18th.
“[This tournament is] one of the most unusual ones I’ve ever played in terms of stop-start,” said Power of the weather-affected event, which featured Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay among its casualties.
Power added of playing in such weather conditions: “You just do the best you can. I’m pretty pleased overall. It was one of those days [on Saturday] in particular that could have got away from you very quickly the way the wind was blowing. It was pretty treacherous. It was good not to have any big numbers and to drop one [on the 18th] and still finish under par is pretty pleasing overall.”
Five shots adrift of Burns and Hoge heading into the third round, Power observed: “It’s a good spot. Overall, I’m pretty pleased. The last couple of days, we had rain for a lot of our round on Friday and very strong winds [on Saturday]. I was kind of proud of hanging in there and staying patient, not really knowing what was going to happen with the tournament, with rounds and stuff, so overall pretty pleased.”
Leaderboard after second round
USA unless stated, par 72
137 Sam Burns 68 69, Tom Hoge 66 71
138 Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 71 67, Harold Varner III 69 69
139 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 68 71, Paul Casey (Eng) 70 69, Corey Conners (Can) 70 69, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 66 73, Keith Mitchell 67 72, Taylor Pendrith (Can) 68 71
140 Doug Ghim 70 70, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 67 73, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 67 73, Cameron Smith (Aus) 69 71, Will Zalatoris 69 71
141 Joel Dahmen 70 71, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 72, Jon Rahm (Spa) 69 72, Doc Redman 71 70, Justin Thomas 72 69, Bubba Watson 73 68
142 Daniel Berger 67 75, Sergio Garcia (Spa) 71 71, Brian Harman 68 74, Russell Henley 69 73, Kramer Hickok 67 75, Dustin Johnson 69 73, Kevin Kisner 68 74, Russell Knox (Sco) 71 71, Hank Lebioda 72 70, Adam Long 71 71, Pat Perez 70 72, Séamus Power (Irl) 71 71, Brendan Steele 73 69
143 Keegan Bradley 72 71, Hayden Buckley 72 71, Brice Garnett 67 76, Branden Grace (Rsa) 71 72, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 70 73, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 70 73, Shane Lowry (Irl) 73 70, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 70 73, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 70 73, Ian Poulter (Eng) 73 70, Patrick Reed 73 70, Sam Ryder 69 74, Sepp Straka (Aut) 69 74, Jimmy Walker 70 73
144 Chesson Hadley 70 74, Adam Hadwin (Can) 72 72, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 70 74, Billy Horschel 74 70, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 71 73, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 72 72, Patton Kizzire 68 76, Jason Kokrak 72 72, Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 75, Kevin Streelman 73 71
145 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 73 72, Max Homa 72 73, Peter Malnati 70 75, Troy Merritt 74 71, Aaron Wise 71 74, Michael Thompson 72 73
146 Lee Hodges 72 74, Denny McCarthy 70 76, Rory McIlroy (N Irl) 73 73, Maverick McNealy 70 76, Scottie Scheffler 70 76, Scott Stallings 71 75, Nick Watney 75 71
Missed cut
147 Cameron Davis (Aus) 71 76, Jason Day (Aus) 69 78, Charley Hoffman 74 73, Chris Kirk 71 76, Matt Kuchar 74 73, Marc Leishman (Aus) 69 78, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 73 74, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 73 74, Scott Piercy 70 77, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 69 78, Patrick Rodgers 73 74
148 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 74 74, Lucas Glover 74 74, Talor Gooch 70 78, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 74 74, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 72 76, Collin Morikawa 73 75, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 69 79, Andrew Putnam 69 79, Justin Rose (Eng) 69 79, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 75 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 78 70, Hudson Swafford 73 75, Richy Werenski 71 77, Cameron Young 71 77
149 Joseph Bramlett 75 74, Patrick Cantlay 72 77, Wyndham Clark 73 76, Matt Jones (Aus) 79 70, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 72 77, Webb Simpson 75 74, Brian Stuard 73 76
150 Lanto Griffin 70 80, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 78, Roger Sloan (Can) 73 77, Gary Woodland 71 79
151 Cameron Champ 72 79, Tony Finau 76 75, Beau Hossler 71 80, Ryan Palmer 71 80, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 73 78, Xander Schauffele 73 78, Adam Schenk 78 73, J. J. Spaun 73 78, Jordan Spieth 72 79, Robert Streb 74 77, Kevin Tway 73 78
152 Stewart Cink 77 75, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 77 75, Brandt Snedeker 72 80, Kyle Stanley 74 78, Brendon Todd 78 74, Cameron Tringale 73 79, Matt Wallace (Eng) 76 76
153 James Hahn 74 79, Harry Higgs 77 76, Zach Johnson 73 80, Brooks Koepka 72 81, Matthew NeSmith 79 74, J. T. Poston 78 75, Sahith Theegala 74 79, Lee Westwood (Eng) 73 80, Matthew Wolff 72 81
154 Brandon Hagy 78 76, Taylor Moore 74 80
155 Ryan Brehm 74 81
157 Brian Gay 76 81, Chez Reavie 80 77
159 Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 77 82
