TROON, SCOTLAND | In the early afternoon of Friday, Shane Lowry lowered himself into a chair in a marquee near Royal Troon’s sturdy stone clubhouse. A smile played around his face as he tugged absent-mindedly at his beard. He was the mid-afternoon leader of the 152nd Open Championship and was justifiably feeling pleased with himself
Lowry, 37, of Ireland, had got perhaps the best of the weather, starting late in Thursday’s first round at 2:59 p.m. and early-ish in Friday’s second round at 9:47 a.m., and his rounds of 66 and 69 totalled 7-under par. From the comfort of his chair, he noted how the wind was rising and rattling windowpanes and kicking up flecks of white on the sea only a few yards to the right of the opening holes. The average score of those who played in the morning was 73 and those in the afternoon was 75.
Lowry, the 2019 Open champion, was one of only three competitors who had played 18 holes on Thursday without a bogey, and he continued that bogey-free run until the fifth hole of his second round. One dropped shot on that 220-yard short hole, which was played into a fickle, gusting wind, and two on the notorious 11th, known as the Railway because the Ayr-to-Glasgow line runs parallel with it, were his only blemishes.
At the 11th, Lowry was distracted by a cameraman as he played his second shot and hit his ball across the fairway and into a gorse bush. He played a provisional ball, only for his original to be found, and so had to play that one. After dropping out under penalty, he ran up a 6 on the par-4 hole. It had taken him 28 minutes to play the hole, what with consultations with rules officials. “To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6,” Lowry said. “It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
“Shane is a very authentic, very solid person. There is a lot of humanity and goodness in him. – Philip Quinn
It was often said that Darren Clarke, the Northern Irishman who won the 2011 Open Championship, had the build to withstand the wind and perhaps rain of a seaside course. He was, as someone once observed, a solid citizen. In a wind, Clarke would widen his stance, shorten his swing slightly and give the ball a mighty punch. In build, Lowry is like Clarke: broad-shouldered and sturdy, brisk to the ball and over it, and it takes quite a strong wind to move him. When Lowry won the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush, he battled through rain and wind without being unduly affected by either.
The difference between these two Open champions is that Lowry’s swing is longer than Clarke’s and more languid. With a short iron in his hand, Lowry has a rare touch. He takes a longish swing, gives the ball a bit of a flick and sends it on its way to its target, often very accurately.
And his putting is not bad, either. He birdied the par-4 first in the second round, having attacked the hole with a 3-wood from the tee when many of his rivals were using long irons. He wedged to within tap-in distance for birdie at the par-5 fourth, then birdied the 117-yard par-3 eighth, known as the Postage Stamp because of its small size, from 11 feet. He birdied the 16th by reaching it in two, and he holed from 20 feet for another birdie on the 18th to get to 7-under. He has the characteristic that some big men in golf have, namely that he is able to play very soft and delicate shots. It is striking how quietly he holds the club when he putts. It’s as if he were cradling an injured bird.
“Shane is a very authentic, very solid person,” Philip Quinn, a sportswriter with the Irish Daily Mail, noted as he tramped through the rough at Royal Troon following Lowry. “There is a lot of humanity and goodness in him. He has said that his ideal partners for a round at Augusta would be his father and his brother. He has also said that if he hadn’t been a professional golfer, he would have been a detective because he misses nothing. He was once asked if he was superstitious, and he replied that he always has eight tees in his pocket at the start of a round.
“In 2007 when he was an amateur, he came to a dinner for golfers and golf writers,” Quinn continued. “He was chubby-faced, with spectacles and had a shock of hair. He had a big smile on his face most of the evening and said how honoured he was to be in the same room as another Irishman, Pádraig Harrington [who had just won the Open at Carnoustie and would win the Open and the PGA Championship the next year].”
Lowry was asked if he was a good frontrunner, and the geniality that seems so natural to the Irish surfaced in his reply. “I wouldn’t say I’m a good runner,” he said to laughter from listeners. “I put myself there in a few big tournaments, and I’ve managed to knock them off. So, I’ve done it a few times.
“This week in my head … I think I’m ready to take what comes, take what’s given to me out there. Almost ready for anything that’s thrown at me. I feel like I’m ready to take it on the chin and move on. I just have to deal with it and try and make the best of it and see where it leads me. It’s hard to win tournaments. The job tomorrow as well is to try to put myself in a position to win this tournament on Sunday, and that’s what I’ll try and do. We’ll see. I’ll tell you Sunday evening.”