The telltale sign that acts as confirmation that Shane Lowry is doing Shane Lowry things is when his large fist is closed so that it can punch into the air. If the gesture is met with decibel-breaking roars from the crowds, all the better.
And so it was in the first round of the Open Championship on the Dunluce links, on terrain where he reigned supreme in famously claiming the Claret Jug in 2019.
If the walk to the first tee had understandably been accompanied by nerves, once the driver was handed to him by caddie Darren Reynolds – the decision to use the big stick taken after a walk with coach Neil Manchip the night before – there was a lovely flow and rhythm for much a round which lasted close to six hours but from which he signed for a 70, one-under-par.
“Obviously I want so much to do well in this tournament. I want so much to give myself a chance on Sunday,” said Lowry. “You can’t do that without hitting a good first tee shot. I knew I needed to do that. We all know the dangers that first hole can throw at you, so I was happy to get under way.”
RM Block
This was Lowry, comfortable in his own skin and playing his kind of golf. He’d prepared for here by playing a bucket list selection of links – Portmarnock, The Island, Baltray, Waterville, Hogs Head – but the switch from sunshine to wind and rainy weather meant an adjustment was required and applied.
“I adapted pretty well,” conceded Lowry. “Obviously days like today, you can really play your way out of a tournament. So, it was nice to play my way into it.”
Those conditions were such that the umbrella was up and down like a fairground Jumping Jack while his constant changing of tops – “I had a good few. Darren will sleep well tonight. We had a lot, three, because it was cold and then it got warm and then it got wet” – showed how the unsettled weather front impacted play.
The slow pace meant lots of looking at scoreboards, and regular chats with Scottie Scheffler and Collin Morikawa.
“I feel like Scottie’s a nice person to be around and obviously a great player. It’s unbelievable how well he manages his way around the golf course and the scores he shoots. It’s just incredible what he does with the ball.
“Even when you look at him and it looks like he’s hitting a bad shot, it doesn’t go in a bad spot. Yeah, it was a nice day out there. Obviously Collin didn’t have his best stuff, but it was nice,” said Lowry afterwards. Scheffler cruised to a 68, while Morikawa crashed to a 75.
Lowry kept to his task well. For the most part, he found fairways and hit greens. When he had to, on the 10th and 11th, he holed the par-saving putts from eight feet and 22 feet and got the third birdie of his round on the 17th, where he sank a 22-footer and again brought that fist pump reaction into the warm air.
When he sank a five-footer for par on the 18th, the first time he’d returned to the scene of his great triumph with a scorecard in hand, the acclaim came from a packed grandstand.
“I wasn’t expecting 18 to be full with Rory [McIlroy] out on the course. The grandstand was full. Nice reception walking down 18. It was pretty cool ... the crowd have been amazing all week. I won the last time here, and I’m trying to use it to my advantage,” said Lowry.
He added: “We’re going to get challenging conditions over the next few days. Like today, for example, the 11th hole was like the worst hole to get the weather we got in. We all really struggled, and I fortunately made a great putt for par.
“I think there’s going to be certain times in the tournament where that’s going to happen, and you just need to kind of put your head down and battle through it and see where it leaves you.
“I’m happy. I’ve fought with this round of golf in my head for a few weeks now. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”
Right in it, from the start.
