Shane Lowry waves to the crowd on the 18th green at The Open. | Photo by Luke Walker/R&A via Getty Images
Shane Lowry faced some adversity midway through his second round, but the Irishman bounced back to seize the lead at The Open.
Shane Lowry’s second round at The Open almost went off the rails.
On Royal Troon’s brutal par-4 11th hole, one of the most challenging holes in the world known as “The Railway,” Lowry duck-hooked his second shot into a massive gorse bush left and short of the green. He could not hit it right, where out-of-bounds and the Scottish Rail run along the entirety of this hole’s right side, hence the nickname.
So, Lowry understandably went left. But he went too far left into danger, another reason why this hole is so tough. You cannot miss on either side. At any rate, a big number loomed as Lowry, who had played near flawless golf to that point, held the lead at 7-under par.
But knowing gorse almost always leads to lost balls, Lowry took another drop and hit his fourth shot to about eight feet away. He had a chance to dash out of there with a bogey-five, which would have been remarkable considering the circumstances. Even Ryder Cup legend Sam Torrance, who called some action for USA Network early Friday, called the shot “magnificent.”
Then, unfortunately for Lowry, a spectator had located the Irishman’s ball at the stem of the gorse, a spot nobody could play from. When you find your ball, you have to play it. But Lowry wished nobody saw it.
Photo by Stuart Franklin/R&A via Getty Images
Shane Lowry figures out what to do on the 11th.
Rules officials, spectators, and Lowry then deliberated for 20 minutes as the 2019 Open winner pondered where to drop. It took a while, but Lowry knew he had all the time in the world. He was not in a rush because he knew another mistake could seriously jeopardize his chances of winning a second Claret Jug.
“I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing,” Lowry explained.
“I felt like [my caddie] Darren [Reynolds] did a great job telling me, ‘We have loads of time. We don’t need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here.’”
Photo by Stuart Franklin/R&A/R&A via Getty Images
Shane Lowry plays his fourth shot on the 11th.
Lowry finally took his drop and pitched up to the front of the green. He two-putted from there and walked away with a double-bogey.
“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6,” Lowry added. “It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
But Lowry would not have been in this predicament if he had not lost his train of thought for a split second.
“There was a cameraman there, and he was walking up, and I asked him to stop or move back, and he just kind of stayed there,” Lowry said of the moment that took place right before he rifled his second shot into the gorse.
“As it was over, he put his camera up. I kind of saw it out of the corner of my eye, and I should have stood off it; my own fault.”
He somehow re-focused and took his time to regain his composure. But the critical moment for him, he says, came on the par-4 12th, a hole that plays dead into the wind. He needed to bounce back and not compound his mistake, a tall task considering the 12th played as the most difficult hole on Friday—an eye-opening reality knowing how challenging the 11th is.
“I hit driver, 4-iron there too, the best shots I’ve hit all week, to about 30 feet and made par there,” Lowry said.
“From then on, I felt [the wind] down out of the left coming in. It was playing quite difficult, but I felt like you could give yourself chances on the way in, and that’s what I did.”
Lowry took advantage of the par-5 16th—the only real birdie opportunity the back nine offers. He found the green in two and two-putted from 58 feet.
He then closed with a gorgeous birdie on the par-4 18th, rolling in a 20-footer to get back to 7-under, where he was when he stood on the 11th tee.
“I’m pretty happy with the day,” Lowry said.
“To be leading this tournament after two days, it’s why you come here, it’s why we’re here. Yeah, I’ll sit back and watch a bit of golf in the afternoon, see where it leaves me at the end of the day, and get out there tomorrow. 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.”
When Lowry won this tournament in 2019, he finished six strokes ahead of runner-up Tommy Fleetwood. After the second round, he held a share of the 36-hole lead with J.B. Holmes, and then, on Saturday, he fired a course record, 8-under 63, to take a four-shot lead going into the final round.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a good runner,” Lowry joked when a reporter asked if he is a good frontrunner.
“I don’t know. 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. I don’t know. It’s hard to win tournaments. We’ll see. I’ll tell you Sunday evening.”
Lowry holds a two-shot after 36-holes over Daniel Brown at the midway point of the championship. Time will tell if he can claim his second Claret Jug, but if he can remain level-headed—just as he did for those 20 minutes on the 11th hole—he will be hard to beat.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
