Shane Lowry went into the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club on the outside looking in as far as his FedEx Cup playoff ambitions were concerned, starting in 76th on the standings and needing to break into the top 70 by the tournament’s end if he is to force his way into the lucrative end-of-season money-fest.
An opening round of two-under-par 68 – three birdies, one bogey – represented a solid start for the Offalyman, his demeanour suggesting a man very much focused on the task ahead. Even a chip-in birdie on the Par 5 14th, his fifth hole, was accepted with the calmness of a man aware that the task is, firstly, to make the cut and, then, to finish as high up the leaderboard as he can to progress on to the playoffs.
Lowry added the tournament in North Carolina to his schedule following a missed cut in the 151st Open at Hoylake: “I want to make it into next week (the St Jude Classic in Memphis). I want to get into the playoffs. And I want to make a run at the playoffs . . . . I certainly don’t want to be sitting home on my couch watching the playoffs. It’s a lot of motivation for me to play good golf and hopefully get my rewards at the end of it.”
Those pre-tournament observations were matched by a steady first round as Lowry’s 68 left him three shots adrift of early clubhouse leader Adam Scott. The Australian entered the tournament 81st on the standings and, like Lowry, needing to break into the top 70 to progress to Memphis next week. Scott opened with a fine 65 that featured seven birdies bookended by two bogeys.
The year in sports quotes: The wit and wisdom - from Damien Duff to Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington to Rory McIlroy
Denis Walsh: Irish sport’s underdog mentality has been replaced with an unabashed hunger to be the best
Four of Ireland’s top five most admired sports people in 2024 are women
A box of Pro V1s is the Christmas present of choice for many. But do they help the average golfer?
Lowry started on the 10th hole and reeled off five straight pars before chipping in from 50 feet on the 14th to get his first birdie. He dropped a shot on the first after finding a fairway bunker and getting his approach to the fringe of the green but then failed to get up and down, missing a 12-footer for par.
However, Lowry got back on the birdie trail when he sank a 12-footer on the Par 5 fifth and then went back-to-back when he hit his approach shot to seven feet on the sixth.
For Scott there is – like Lowry – an ambition to get into the playoffs. As he put it, “I’ve had a lot of years having a go at the FedExCup playoffs and all these kind of things come to an end at some point. But for sure, I want to win this tournament and if I do that I can have a really good run right through to East Lake, I believe.”
Meanwhile, in the Scottish Women’s Open at Dundonald Links, a co-sanctioned event on the LPGA Tour and the LET, Japan’s Hinako Shibuno produced a superb bogey-free round of eight-under-par 64 to claim the first round lead.
Stephanie Meadow – the only Irish player in the field, with Leona Maguire opting to take the week off ahead of next week’s AIG Women’s Open, the final Major of the season – showed great fortitude in recovering from back-to-back bogeys on the 12th and 13th by responding with birdies on the 14th and 16th only to suffer a double-bogey seven on the closing hole for an opening 73, one-over-par.
Shibuno, who took a two-stroke lead over Sweden’s Madelene Sagstrom, has been troubled with a finger injury of late but showed no effects in her stellar round which included a run of four birdies from the 13th. “It’s not 100 per healed,” she said, adding “I’m just being relaxed and thinking about sequence, the swing”.
