Shane Lowry had a couple of important appointments: firstly, he had to play a round of golf - which he did quite successfully, in signing for an opening round of three-under-par 67 in the Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida - and, then, he had to collect his daughter Iris from school.
Lowry - and clan - have been based in the area in recent times and the benefits of staying at home allowed him to switch off from the demands of the local tour stop which traditionally is rated among the toughest exams of the season, although Australian Matt Jones, without a win since the 2014 Houston Open, somehow conjured up a sizzling 61 to claim the first round lead.
Having finished eighth at last week’s Players championship and spent the early part of the week playing Augusta National in preparation for next month’s Masters tournament, Lowry continued his good form with a round that included four birdies and a lone bogey.
Lowry’s first birdie arrived in style, sinking a left-to-right downhill putt from 35 feet on the 16th (his eighth hole) and, although suffering a bogey on the Par 3 17th after missing the green, he bounced back with a birdie on the Par 5 18th and then had back-to-back birdies on the second and third to make an upward move.
“Any time you shoot under par on this course you’re happy,” acknowledged Lowry, “there’s a lot of disaster holes and whatever Matt Jones (is doing) is incredible. I’m very happy with my 67 . . . it’s my long game that I don’t feel comfortable with. I missed a few fairways today but I was missing them in the right spots and luckily this year there’s not much rough, you can kind of get away with it a little.”
Graeme McDowell’s start wasn’t quite so smooth, as the former US Open champion - who has had a tough start to the season, with four missed cuts in five tournaments so far this year - ran up a 79 that included two doubles and a triple-bogey on his front nine.
Jones produced the round of his life, with nine birdies in a bogey free 61 that propelled him to the top of the leaderboard. “I hit it really nicely. You have to be able to control the ball, it was wind and I turned with a good score and then you know what you’ve got ahead of you. I was lucky to make a few more birdies . . . . my proximity to the hole was very good.
“Normally, that’s my weakness but today it was my strength,” said Jones, who had a run of four successive birdies from the second and then finished with a hat-trick of birdies from the 16th to finish.
Collated first round scores (USA unless stated, Par 70)
61 Matt Jones (Aus)
64 Aaron Wise, Russell Henley
66 Cameron Davis (Aus), Joseph Bramlett, Kevin Chappell, Scott Harrington, Steve Stricker, James Hahn
67 Cameron Tringale, Chase Seiffert, Chengtsung Pan (Tai), Shane Lowry (Irl), Will Gordon, Zach Johnson
68 Adam Long, Chris Kirk, DJ Trahan, Denny McCarthy, Harry Higgs, Jason Dufner, John Huh, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Mark Hubbard, Nate Lashley, Sepp Straka (Aut), Sung Jae Im (Kor)
69 Adam Scott (Aus), Brandon Hagy, Bronson Burgoon, Cameron Percy (Aus), Camilo Villegas (Col), Chase Koepka, JB Holmes, Jimmy Walker, Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Keegan Bradley, Keith Mitchell, Kevin Streelman, Richy Werenski, Robert Streb, Sam Ryder, William McGirt
70 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa), Chez Reavie, Erik Compton, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa), Jim Furyk, Jim Herman, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha), Lee Westwood (Eng), Lucas Herbert (Aus), Matthew NeSmith, Patrick Rodgers, Rafael Campos (Pur), Rickie Fowler, Russell Knox (Sco), Ryan Armour, Satoshi Kodaira (Jpn), Seung-Yul Noh (Kor), Ted Potter Jr., Tyler McCumber, Wyndham Clark
71 Alexander Noren (Swe), Beau Hossler, Bo Hoag, Brian Gay, Brice Garnett, Harold Varner III, Henrik Norlander (Swe), Ian Poulter (Eng), Jhonattan Vegas (Ven), Kelly Kraft, Lucas Glover, Michael Thompson, Patton Kizzire, Phil Mickelson, Roger Sloan (Can), Scott Brown, Stephen Stallings Jr., Stewart Cink, Xinjun Zhang (Chn)
72 Adam Hadwin (Can), Adam Schenk, Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Doug Ghim, Hudson Swafford, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Martin Trainer, Michael Gligic (Can), Nick Taylor (Can), Padraig Harrington (Irl), Pat Perez, Ryan Moore, Talor Gooch
73 Brendan Steele, David Hearn (Can), KJ Choi (Kor), Kristoffer Ventura (Nor), Vincent Whaley
74 Austin Cook, Brandon Wu, Chesson Hadley, JJ Spaun, JT Poston, Matt Wallace (Eng), Michael Kim, Rhein Gibson (Aus), Robby Shelton, Scott Stallings, Tom Hoge, Tom Lewis (Eng), Troy Merritt, Tyler Duncan, Vijay Singh (Fij), Wesley Bryan
75 Alan Morin, Dylan Frittelli (Rsa), Hank Lebioda, Luke List, Peter Malnati, Rafael Cabrera (Spa), Rob Oppenheim, Sebastian Cappelen (Den)
76 Bo Van Pelt, Grayson Murray, Luke Donald (Eng), Maverick McNealy, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor)
77 Hunter Mahan, Marcelo Rozo (Col), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Vaughn Taylor, Zachary Zaback
78 Henrik Stenson (Swe), Jamie Lovemark, Ryo Ishikawa (Jpn)
79 Andrew Landry, Brian Stuard, Graeme McDowell (Irl), Rory Sabbatini (Svk)
81 Kamaiu Johnson
