Lowry motoring in Honda as McDowell suffers; O'Donovan 10 back in Joburg
Shane Lowry. Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Shane Lowry was on cruise control before going on school patrol after opening with a three-under 67 in the Honda Classic at his West Palm Beach base.
Buoyed by his improved putting and his morale-boosting eighth-place finish in The Players last week, the Open champion overcame some mixed play from tee to green with some short game brilliance to move into contention in what is a home game for him at PGA National, then pop off to collect his daughter from school.
He was tied for ninth, six strokes behind runaway leader Matt Jones of Australia, who fired a course record-equalling, nine-under 61 to lead by three strokes from Aaron Wise and Russell Henley as Graeme McDowell fell foul of the Bear Trap and crashed to a nightmare 79. Scores
“Any time you shoot under par on this course you're pretty happy,” said the Offaly man, who lives just a five-minute drive from the Jack Nicklaus-designed Champion Course.
“The wind actually got up pretty early today. When we made it to like 14, the fifth or sixth hole, it started to get up. It's just so hard, so tricky. There's a lot of disaster holes.
“Whatever Matt Jones is doing, I want to see it because 61 out there is incredible. That's just incredible. But I'm very happy with my 67.”
Playing with fellow Open winners Phil Mickelson (71) and Zach Johnson (67), Lowry hit just five fairways but a combination of light rough and accurate iron play allowed him to hit 11 greens drop just one shot at the terrifying, par-three 17th.
He did well to open with six straight pars, hitting a 114-yard wedge stone dead at the 15th after being forced to chip out of trouble.
The three-hole Bear Trap run from the 15th to the 17th cost McDowell six shots but Lowry negotiated it in level, draining a 36 footer at the 16th before handing that shot back at the next, where he missed the green left but failed with a 10 footer for par
He responded with three birdies in his next four holes, firing a 224-yard four-iron to the heart of the 18th to set up a simple two-putt before following a 203-yard seven-iron to five feet at the second with a chip and putt birdie at the par-five third.
He was less than comfortable off the tee but pleased to find some consistency on the greens.
“Obviously had a nice week at The Players last week,” he said. |I felt like I putted well there three out of four days. It's my long game that I don't feel overly comfortable with.
“I missed a few fairways today but I was missing them in the right spots, and luckily this year there's not much rough here, and you can kind of get away with that a little bit.
“I'm just going to keep plugging away. I feel like I've found something in my putting that I can work on and improve on, so hopefully, I can keep getting better and keep shooting some decent scores.”
As for the comfort of playing a tournament near home, he said: “I suppose it's different. You're staying at home in your own bed and I've got my family there, but they travel with me a lot anyway. They still have their life going on this week.
“I’m heading out to pick my daughter up from school. I'm playing golf this week and I'm working, but I've got my normal weekly routine, as well.
“I'm looking forward to seeing her. We'll play and I'm sure we'll have a good afternoon, so it'll be nice.”
Pádraig Harrington was tied for 82nd as he got little reward for some good driving — he was 20th in strokes gained off the tee — but 106th for approach play as he signed for a two-over 72.
The Ryder Cup captain made three birdies and three birdies going out but after getting to one-under with a birdie at the third, he found water at the fifth and made a double-bogey five before failing to get up and down from the swale right of the ninth.
As for McDowell, the Portrush man was level through six holes after seeing birdies at the 10th and 12th cancelled out by a double-bogey six at the 11th following a visit to water.
But his tournament hopes were mangled in the Bear Trap as he made a quadruple-bogey seven at the 188-yard 15th, hitting a greenside bunker shot over the green into the water before failing to extricate his fourth after being forced to drop in the sand.
After finding water again at the 164-yard 17th to run up a double-bogey, he birdied the 18th to turn in 40 but limped home in 39 for his worst score in 40 rounds at PGA National.
On the Sunshine Tour, Lucan’s Richard O’Donovan made five birdies, three bogeys and a triple-bogey seven in a rollercoaster, two-over 74 to lie joint 90th in the Gauteng Championship at Ebotse Links near Johannesburg. Scores
The former East of Ireland champion was ten strokes behind South Africa’s Tristen Strydom whose eight-under 64 gave him a one-shot lead over Kyle Barker.
On the Korn Ferry Tour, Seamus Power hit just nine greens in regulation in a four-over 75 to lie joint 118th, eight shots behind early leader Max Greyserman in the Chitimacha Louisiana Open. Scores
