Refreshed Lowry off to a flyer in Portugal
Shane Lowry hits his tee shot on the 13th hole during the third round of the 100th PGA Championship held at Bellerive Golf Club on August 11, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by Montana Pritchard/PGA of America)
Shane Lowry is hoping it’s third time lucky for his new caddie after scorching to a seven-under 64 to lie just a shot off the lead in the Portugal Masters.
Refreshed after a month’s holiday, the Offaly man has a new bagman this week in Irishman Brian “Bo” Martin and responded by firing his joint lowest round of the season.
Both are looking for more success at the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, where Lowry won in 2012 and Martin steered Alex Levy to victory in 2014 and Lucas Bjerregaard last year.
"Yeah, Bo's won twice around here and he's just started caddying for me this week," Lowry said.
Joking, he added: "That's our first day on the job so I suppose there's only one way to go from here, that's the only thing!"
He was clearly thrilled with his hot start and only left to regret playing the three par-fives in one-over on a course with punishing rough this year.
"Obviously I'm very happy, 64 any day is very good but I've had four weeks off so it was nice to come back and shoot a good score," said Lowry, who is tied for second with England's Eddie Pepperell and Matt Wallace, just one stroke behind Australian Lucas Herbert. "Looking forward to tomorrow now."
Clinical with his Two-Ball putter, he birdied the first, fourth, fifth and seventh to turn in 31, then made a 20 footer at the 10th to go five under.
While he bogeyed the par-five 12th, he rattled in three birdies in his next four holes before following another momentum stopping bogey six at the par-five 17th, where he drove into the hazard, with a birdie at the last.
"I've won here, I had my first professional win, so very fond memories," Lowry added. "I love coming back down here to play and I come down on holiday quite a lot. I love it here.
"Even though the scoring is good, you need to hit the fairways. Start hitting it in the rough out here and it is quite tricky so the key to here is hitting fairways and you are going to have a lot of chances."
Ryder Cup wildcard Sergio Garcia gave Europea captain Thomas Bjorn reason to smile as he hung on to the coattails of a red-hot Wallace and shot a five-under 66 to share sixth spot in his first start for a month.
Paul Dunne showed signs of a return to form with a three-under 68, but Padraig Harrington paid for every error and had 32 putts in a two-over 73 as Tramore's Robin Dawson (22) shot 74 on his professional debut.
While he was two-under after four holes, Dawson bogeyed his fifth (the 14th) and then dropped four shots in his last five holes, following a double bogey at the par-five fifth with bogeys at the seventh and ninth, which were the two toughest holes on the course yesterday.
At the Challenge Tour's Hopps Open de Provence, Mount Juliet's Gavin Moynihan shot a two-under 70 at Golf International de Pont Royal to lie five shots behind Denmark's Joachim B. Hansen in a tie for 26th.
But it was a struggle for the rest of the Irish with Jonny Caldwell and Ruaidhri McGee posting four over 76s, Cormac Sharvin a 77 and Michael Hoey, who is just three spots outside the top 15 in the rankings, a seven-over 79.
