Shane Lowry leads by two at Open and is undeterred by wind at Troon – The Irish Times

Fate may call, but answering it is never easy. And, as Shane Lowry discovered as he fought his way to the top half of this 152nd Open Championship, the obstacle, so to speak, was presented to him on the 11th hole, known as the Railway, where potential disaster was only averted by his subsequent actions, as he remained calm and cool to sign a second-round 69 that added to his opening 66 for a 36-hole total of 135, seven under par, two shots ahead of his pursuers.

Only halfway there and all that in golf’s oldest major with the toughest part still to come on a brutally tough links course alongside the Firth of Clyde; and yet Lowry’s mental space, as well as his ability to execute shots in demanding, windy conditions, is what put him in prime position to add a second Claret Jug to his victory at Royal Portrush in 2019. Contact distance.

“I think if I give myself a chance on Sunday, I know I can do it. It’s as good a position as any,” Lowry said of taking the lead into a weekend where rainy conditions are expected to add to a challenge that, to date, has consisted of winds that have whipped up at more than 30 mph and wreaked havoc on some.

Lowry entered the final two rounds with a two-shot lead over two Englishmen: Daniel Brown, a player ranked 272nd in the world who has shown his resilience in battling injuries, and Justin Rose, who endured the worst wind conditions over the first two days but suffered only one bogey. Brown, the opening-round leader, shot a 72 and Rose a 68 to finish on 137.

Of the six Irishmen who set off for glory, four survived the cut: Lowry, obviously, at the top of the leaderboard, but also two-time champion Pádraig Harrington and Tom McKibbin (on three-over 145) and Darren Clarke (on 148, after a superb second round of 71), while Rory McIlroy’s problems in the Majors continued, this time with a missed cut to join amateur Liam Nolan in leaving Ayrshire earlier than planned.

Players didn’t just have to look at the flags fluttering from the masts to get a sense of the strong winds; in fact, the approaches of the planes heading towards Prestwick Airport, their wings quivering as if they were made of paper, confirmed their strength.

This was a day to fly low and stay in the moment.

Rose perhaps performed this task best of all (his only bogey in 36 holes came at the 12th, where he eventually fell victim to one of Troon’s bunkers), while the former US Open champion successfully joined Brown as Lowry’s leading pursuers.

But Rose also felt the links had reached a “tipping point” in terms of how the elements were in control rather than the player. “I felt like yesterday was a fair fight. Today was a little bit more survival.”

However, Lowry also demonstrated his own resilience.

For much of the round, the Offaly player, who had skipped last week’s Scottish Open and instead spent four days playing at Hogs Head in County Kerry with friends, was in control. He was a player in control of his shots.

“He’s putting it really well,” his father, Brendan, said of his son as Lowry, who started the day a stroke behind Brown, rose to the top of the leaderboard. His play of the eighth, the famous Postage Stamp, was perfection personified, as his wedge to 10 feet set up the third birdie of a back nine that had only one blemish, on the par-3 fifth, where he found a bunker off the tee.

So the pothole would take him off the track?

Lowry did the hard work on the par-4 11th, a hole framed by the railway line on the right and a row of gorse bushes on the left, by putting his ball into play from the tee. In the slight rough on the right. Eminently playable.

After that everything went wrong.

As Lowry prepared to take his second shot, a television cameraman moved to stand beside him. “He was coming up and I asked him to stop or move away and he just stood there. As I got closer he raised his camera. I saw him out of the corner of my eye and I should have moved away – it was my fault,” recalled Lowry, who took his shot and watched as it flew the other way and into a gorse bush.

After taking a provisional drop, he proceeded to place his next shot (which he believed to be the fourth) 10 feet from the flag. But the provisional ball never became the ball in play. A spectator, believing he was doing him a favour, searched through the thorny gorse and found Lowry’s original ball, which, at that point, was still the one in play. A penalty drop later, a relief of the line of sight from the gorse to the 12th fairway and some 20 minutes of delay and work resulted in a double bogey of six.

Lowry praised the contribution of his caddie Darren Reynolds. “He kept telling me, ‘We’ve got plenty of time. We don’t have to rush. We just have to do the right thing.’ To be honest, I was happy to walk away with a 6. It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”

And Lowry showed no anger, frustration or discouragement. Instead, he came to the 12th hole and hit a superb tee shot and went about his business in a calm, collected manner, which earned him the reward of two birdies on 16 and 18 that cemented his 36-hole lead.

“This week, in my head, I feel like I’m ready to take whatever comes, to take whatever is thrown at me. I’m pretty much ready for whatever is thrown at me. I feel like I’m ready to take it and move on. I just have to deal with it and try to make the most of it and see where it takes me,” Lowry explained about his calmness and his advantage heading into the weekend.

Being the leader is better than being the pursuer.

A good leader?

“I took the lead in some big tournaments and managed to overtake them. I did it a few times. I don’t know. It’s hard to win tournaments.”

Staying in the moment. Destiny calls. Again.