Shane Lowry wants Sunday showdown with Rory McIlroy
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What a difference 48 hours in professional golf can make. Shane Lowry arrived at the Amgen Irish Open underprepared and exhausted but after playing himself into contention over the first 36 holes, his attitude towards his chances at Royal County Down this week have transformed from dismal to gung-ho.
Lowry, the 2009 Irish Open winner as an amateur, was decidedly downbeat about his prospects for a repeat 15 years on when discussing them on the eve of the tournament and after a particularly trying nine holes of practice. Yet rounds of one-over-par 72 and Friday’s two-under 69 have got his week off to a morale-boosting start and put the major champion in a much better place ahead of Saturday’s third round, one under par and five strokes off the halfway lead held by Italy’s Mateo Manassero.
Lowry, 37 and number 32 in the world rankings, was not being overly pessimistic on Wednesday when he faced the media. A consolidated stretch of golf on the PGA Tour had been rewarded with ninth-place finish in the FedEx Cup finale, The Tour Championship and on Friday he said: “I'll be completely honest, I was completely shattered. Didn't get to do much practise last week and tried to rest as much as I can.
“Coming into this week, I was probably a little bit underprepared but I went out there and I was really happy how I played the first two days and I'm right in the tournament and can give it a run now from here.”
Moving into contention has even had Lowry making a Sunday showdown with friend and rival Rory McIlroy his target for the weekend at Royal County Down.
“I know I can go and give it a run,” he said. “I think it's what the tournament wants and needs. Obviously myself and Rory is up there. It would be great if the two of us could give it a run on Sunday.
“You never know. It would be nice to go toe-to-toe on Sunday. We'll see. It's up to me to get myself there. I'm pretty sure he'll get there, anyway.”
A couple of decent rounds on a world-renowned links course such as this will take away a considerable amount of physical tiredness but it is Lowry’s mental strength to get through the troughs and come out stronger that has been impressive so far this week.
“I think I've been good at that this year. I've done a good job this year. I feel like I'm in a good head space with everything at the minute and it's easy to play good golf and get yourself back in when things are not going well, to get yourself back when it's like that.
“Yeah, I'm trying to ride that wave as long as I can par.”
Lowry acknowledged his second-round 69, featuring four birdies, represented a good day’s work at Royal County Down, despite two disappointing bogies at the 16th – his seventh hole - and on his last hole of the day, the par-four ninth.
“It was. Felt like I hit some great shots. Drove the ball brilliantly. Gave myself a few chances and then yeah, the last was smelly. Obviously 16 was a big kick in the you know what. To hit that drive and then come off with five was pretty disappointing. Felt like I got myself going pretty well after that.
“To finish like that, look, to come in here and talk to you guys after 10, 15 minutes is pretty disappointing but when I go back and assess my round, I'll be pretty happy with what I did today.”
Lowry will now look to carry that positivity into Saturday’s play but he said he knew it would be a third round played in more testing conditions than the second 18.
“There's still a lot of golf to be played… Still intrigued what the winning score will be. I still don't think it will be too far under par.
“The conditions are going to be tough. It's going to be windy tomorrow. We might get a bit of rain apparently. So yeah, it's not going to take too good a score to give yourself a chance going into Sunday. I'll be ready for tomorrow and hopefully give it my best.”
