SHANE Lowry tried to look on the bright side after a poor day with his short irons left him six shots behind early pace-setter Sungjae Im in the Masters.

The Clara man was robbed of a hole-in-one at the fourth, where he slammed dunked his four-iron in the cup but saw his ball ricochet off the green en route to a one-over 73 to share 31st with Rory McIlroy as Séamus Power and Pádraig Harrington were forced to settle for 74s and a tie for 43rd.

Scores

After a poor wedge led to a bogey at the third, he dropped another shot after another poor approach at the 10th but looked to be right back on track when he chipped in for eagle at the 13th, then birdied the 14th to get to one-under-par.

Another birdie at the 15th would have put him in the top 10, but he had 270 yards into the wind for his approach and laid up only to spin his 95-yard wedge back in the water en route to a double-bogey seven.

“It doesn’t put me out of the tournament but I feel like where I drove to golf ball today I probably should’ve shot under par,” said Lowry, who hit 12 fairways but missed ten greens. “I am a bit disappointed with it but I will pick myself up and go out again tomorrow. 

“The wind is swirling and it’s quite strong and it’s hard to be precise out there but I’m just a tad disappointed at the minute but like I said I’ll pick myself up and get it back at it tomorrow”

Korean star Im birdied the first three holes, picked up another shot at the seventh, then followed bogeys at the 10th and 11th with an eagle at the 13th and a birdie at the 15th to card a five-under 67.

He was a shot clear of Players Championship winner Cameron Smith of Australia, who sandwiched eight birdies between double-bogeys at the first and 18th for his 68 as 2016 champion Danny Willett, Chile’s Joaquin Niemann and world number one Scottie Scheffler shot 69s and Tiger Woods an extraordinary, one-under 70.

“Well, I did not have a very good warmup at all,” Woods said. “I hit it awful.

“As the round built, I was able to get into the red. I got out of there and got to even-par but made two stupid mistakes at 8 back-to-back, loss of concentration a little bit there, but I fought back. For the day, to end up in the red, I'm right where I need to be.”

Lowry is not too far from where he needs to be and having seen his four-iron tee shot fly straight into the hole at the fourth only to ricochet off the green, then turn a possible birdie chance into a double-bogey seven at the 15th, he was not far away from breaking 70.

“Hopefully that’s my bad round out-of-the-way,” he said. “If I shoot three better score than that I think I’ll do OK this week. 

“With the forecast tomorrow and Saturday I think the course is going to try out and it’s going to play play quickie quite tricky. I’ll sit back with Neil (Manchip) and Bo (Martin) after my lunch and I’ll look at how the day went. 

“It’s easy standing here and being disappointed after finishing like that but I’ll look at how the day went and if I look at it I probably say played some nice golf in amongst I’m really bad shots and I got punished for the bad shots.

“On the fourth hole it pitched in the hole and bounced off the green but 15 was just an error on my part. It’s a bit unforgivable but it is what it is there’s nothing I can do about it now.

“I holed a nice put for seven there at a nice putt for par at the next and a nice putt for par at the last so so it could’ve been a bit worse as well. I need to look at the positives “

It was also a case of what might have been for Harrington, who was two-under-par through four holes but signed for a two-over 74.

The Dubliner (50) missed a six-footer at the first and a 12 footer at the second but birdied the third and long par-three fourth from four feet to take the early lead.

He three-putted the fifth, made a 67 footer up the hill for par at the sixth, then followed a bogey at the seventh with a birdie four at the eighth to get to one-under.

But as the wind got up, he came home in three-over as he missed a four-footer for par after finding sand long at the 12th, then three-putted the 16th from 40 feet and dropped another shot with a weak chip at the 17th,

“Obviously, I was in a nice place all day,” Harrington said. “I struggled a little bit later on and obviously, should have finished better than 2-over. A 70 would have been a reasonable return for the way I played. 

“It was disappointing to three-putt 16 and bogey 17. Besides the score, the rest of it was good in terms of I felt very comfortable. Probably more comfortable than a lot of times in the first round of a major, so that was nice.” 

It’s been seven years since his last appearance at Augusta and while he joked that “a lot of the demons are buried at this stage,” he found Augusta as challenging as ever.

“You can feel like you can fire at the pins, make birdies from anywhere, and then you get yourself out of position, and you go, well, this is difficult.

“Personally, I would like the test that is there right now all the time. A little bit of wind, but also a little bit of give in the greens.”

Power’s first Masters round was frustrating as he combined 16 pars with bogeys at the fifth and 14th for his 74.

“I’ll probably be happy with 74 later but it’s frustrating in the moment,” Power said. “I wasn’t quite able to get it going but it’s not easy out there. 

“I had some chances I wasn’t able to take advantage of and it was just one of those days you weren’t going to get that many. 

“So I wasn’t quite my day around the greens but hopefully I can get after it tomorrow.

“It was definitely one of those days it could get away from you you could hit some loose shots, especially on the back there and turn two over into five or six over and then you’re in big big trouble. 

“At least I didn’t do that and obviously l have to take advantage of some of my opportunities tomorrow.”