Lowry starts well at Wentworth in quest for overdue win
Shane Lowry tees off on the 17th hole during the first round at the 2022 U.S. Open at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. on Thursday, June 16, 2022. (Robert Beck/USGA)
The LIV Golf controversy may eventually go away, but Shane Lowry showed his love of Wentworth is eternal when he opened with a six-under 66 in the BMW PGA at Wentworth.
While play was suspended late in the day following the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth with no play scheduled for Friday, Lowry took advantage of soft conditions to go bogey-free.
The Offaly man was tied fifth in the clubhouse, just two strokes behind Viktor Hovland, Tommy Fleetwood and Andy Sullivan, whose eight-under 64s gave them a one-shot lead over Matthew Jordan.
"I am happy," Lowry told RTÉ Radio after a six-birdie round. "I have just had two weeks off and I'll be honest, I didn't do that much practice.
"I didn't know what to expect going out today. I prepared as best I could the last couple of days and I just know this place fairly well and know how to get around here.
"I hit a really bad shot on number five and made an unbelievable up and down from 20 yards right of the green."
Winless since the 2019 Open, Lowry has had nine top-20s, including four top-10s and a runner-up finish, in 12 starts at Wentworth and admits he'd love to get the first win of a stellar season.
"Well, it's as good a year as I've had in my career without winning," he said. "That's the best way to sum it up. I'd love to win one of the next few tournaments I play over the next few months and to finish the calendar year with a win would be nice."
Lowry said on Wednesday he "can't stand" seeing many LIV Golf players in the field and Graeme McDowell, who opened with a one-under 71 to share 72nd place as Jonny Caldwell's 75 left him 129th, called for players to vote on whether they should be allowed play.
The 2010 US Open champion said: "I don't care about anything a courtroom suggests, this to me is about DP World Tour members and whether they feel like me and the other big names that are playing LIV Golf can bring any value to this Tour moving forward
"If they think that's something they don't want, great; let's get to that decision and move on because the lack of clarity is just not good for anybody.
"I wish I'd have asked the question at the (players) meeting the other night. What is the process? Is there a way to expedite it? Does it have to happen in a court of law?
“Let's send 326 emails out (the Tour has 326 members) and maybe two videos; one from the LIV players saying we'd love to support this tour eight, 10, 12 times a year and then the other side of it is Keith Pelley's statement this week."
His plea was dismissed by Rory McIlroy, who believes they will have to live with the consequences of breaking the tour's rules pending February's court ruling.
McIlroy had no sympathy for McDowell, however, remarking: "At this point with legal things and everything, you just have to go by the book.
“If you're abiding by the rules and regulations of the tours then by all means you can play, but if you've broken rules and regulations, actions have consequences and they're living with the consequences; well they're not at the minute, but in February they might.
“It's mindboggling that it's gotten to this point, that the future of their golf careers is up to one person [a judge]. It's crazy. They put themselves in that position.”
McIlroy made just one bogey, moving the ball just 18 inches from a heavy lie at the eighth, and sounds confident he can contend.
"I never want to say golf is easy because it's not," he said. "But everything is in a good spot. My misses are not as wild as they have been in the past. I'm thinking my way around the golf course well and then when I do hit good shots, I take advantage of them and make a few birdies.
"I didn't play fantastically well, but I didn't make many mistakes either. For the rest of the week, it's going to be very gettable. It's so soft, it's so receptive. You've got the ball in your hand and you've got preferred lies if you hit the fairway."
Pádraig Harrington, who continues his bid for the Charles Schwab Cup at the Ascension Charity Classic in St Louis, thinks LIV’s biggest headache is world ranking points and that it can co-exist with the existing tours
“LIV Golf is interesting and plenty of my friends have gone over to play there. It's very attractive financially,” he said. “They're only just starting it, it's only 15 events a year, so they're not trying to take over world golf or anything like that. The PGA Tour is always going to be the biggest, but it's an alternative for players.
“I do think, you know, on that side of things, if you leave, if you leave a team, you can't go back and play for the other team. Now, to say that, they probably need to get World Ranking points because if they don't get World Ranking points on LIV, it kind of leaves them out there and we wouldn't want a situation where the best players can't play in the majors.
“So the majors are sitting up there at the top, the PGA Tour is always going to be, you know, the next best place to be. LIV is financially going to be really good.
“But as I say, 15 events, they're not trying to take over golf, they're trying to do something different. In a few years' time, who knows? We'll all find our place and we'll all figure a way of working through this together.
“But at the moment as I said, once you're gone, you're kind of gone at the moment. They probably do need to figure out some way to get World Ranking points so they can continue to play in the major tournaments.”
At the LPGA's Kroger Queen City Championship, Leona Maguire fought back from a double-bogey seven at her third hole of the day to open with a two-under 70 at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati.
She was five shots behind Japan's Nasa Hataoka with Stephanie Meadow a shot further back after a 71.
Meanwhile, amateur Robert Moran shot a three-under 69 to move up two places to tied 18th on seven-under at halfway in the First Stage Section B of the DP World Tour Q-School at Montado Golf Resort in Portugal.
He's seven shots behind Australian amateur Connor McKinney and just inside the top 23 and ties who will progress to November's Second Stage with US-based Redmond Lyons tied 43rd on three-under after a 69.
