DOONBEG, Ireland (AP) — Shane Lowry finally had a great day with the putter and made the most of it Friday by setting the course record with an 8-under 62 at Trump International Ireland to build a three-shot lead going into the weekend at the Irish Open.
Lowry went from wanting to get off the course as quickly as possible in the wind-blown opening round to wishing a day like this wouldn't end. He made birdie on half of the holes and was hitting his irons so well that only three of the birdies were outside 10 feet.
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“Every time I kept making birdie, I just kept going, wanting to birdie the next,” Lowry said. “I felt like I was in control out there. So it was good fun. It's been awhile since I've had that much fun on the golf course, so I'll take it.”
He was at 11-under 129, three shots clear of Haotong Li (63) and the Danish duo of Jacob Skov Olesen and Niklas Norgaard, who each shot 64.
Li also enjoyed a spell of good weather on the Doonbeg course along the Atlantic coast after Thursday when the wind was so strong it took some six hours to play. The first round had to be completed Friday.
“Yesterday was kind of like a little bit bad weather. Even some of the 3-feet par putts, I felt like they were shaking,” Lie said. “But today it was kind of like birdie heaven.”
That wasn't the case for defending champion Rory McIlroy, pleased with his game from the tee until he had the putter in his hand. McIlroy struggled to read the greens, and the 18th summed up his round of 69 when he three-putted from 4 feet for bogey, missing a 20-inch par putt.
“It’s hard whenever you struggle to read them,” McIlroy said of the greens. “And then when you do get over the ball you’re trying to trust what you’re seeing, but everything else that you have seen hasn’t went the way you thought.”
McIlroy was nine shots out of the lead and bracing for more rough weather over the weekend, when President Donald Trump is due for a visit.
Lowry made three straight birdies starting with a 4-footer on the third hole, and he closed out the front nine with another string of three birdies. Key to his momentum was a 10-foot par save on the 10th, followed by two more birdies that put him at 8-under par for the round through 12 holes and had the 2019 British Open champion thinking about breaking 60.
That thought lasted one hole — he three-putted from 18 feet for bogey on the 13th.
Joaquin Niemann, the 18-hole leader, had to settle for a 70 that left him six shots behind. Patrick Reed, the American who leads the Race to Dubai, had another 68 and was seven shots back. Jon Rahm had a 67 and was another shot behind at 3-under 137.
Five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, playing for the first time in a month, holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the last hole for a 66 to make the cut on the number.
Lowry won the Irish Open in 2009 as an amateur, and McIlroy said he was not surprised to see him with another chance at Doonbeg.
“He believes he’s a good player in windy links conditions, so I think that’s half the battle is believing that you are or knowing that you are,” McIlroy said. “I think he feels like he has an advantage when the conditions are like that. And that’s the way he sees the game.”
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