As the wind picked up, Shane Lowry let loose. The 11th hole at Royal Troon is dangerous enough without unwanted intervention. As Lowry stood over his second shot, a cameraman raised his lens. Lowry fired the ball straight left and into a gorse bush. Open Championship bids can be reduced to a mess with moments like this.
Television commentators apologised when Lowry’s intemperate outburst at the gentleman who had driven him mad was clearly picked up by microphones. Lowry’s mood was hardly lifted when a member of the crowd found his stray ball in a spot that looks fine but is awful to be in – and painful. The Irishman would have preferred to play with his provisional ball. At this point you could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.
Lowry recovered. After a penalty drop, he escaped with a double-bogey six to maintain a tie for the lead in the Open. By the end of the match, Lowry had recovered those two strokes and separated himself from the field by the same margin. His response to adversity was that of a champion.
Lowry picks up the story of a scenario that played out 20 minutes ago. “There was a cameraman and as he was walking forward I asked him to stop or back off and he just stood there,” the 2019 champion said. “When I was over the ball he held his camera up. I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I should have stayed away from it, my own fault.” Needless to say, this was not Lowry’s opinion at the time.
“I did the hardest part. I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously hard on that hole. I was in the rough. I just lost it a little bit. You’re so scared to go there that I just grabbed the club and went left.
“I hit a great provisional. The umpire asked me when I went down if I wanted to find my first, and I said no. So I assumed that was OK. Then we went down and someone had found it. So apparently we have to find it, or you have to identify it. I thought if you declared it lost before it was found, you didn’t have to identify it. I was happy enough to leave there with a six. It wasn’t a disaster.”
There were plenty elsewhere. Tiger Woods missed the cut by a wide margin. And 2022 champion Cameron Smith. Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg? Not anymore. Home hero Robert MacIntyre played his first four holes in eight over par to end his Claret Jug bid. Justin Thomas, who had been in third place overnight, slumped to a front nine of 45. Rory McIlroy was in reverse-ferret mode long before the turn. An early exit was inevitable after a triple bogey on the fourth. His bid for a fifth major title will last until 2025.
This was a devilishly difficult Friday, as evidenced by the fact that after 36 holes only 10 players were under par. Among them are Xander Schauffele and Jason Day. At plus one Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka lurk with a threat.
Lowry’s fame is largely due to preparation. He visited Troon the week before the Open, where he was able to test the course in similar winds to those on competition days. “If I give myself a chance on Sunday, I know I can do it,” Lowry added. It naturally brings back memories of Royal Portrush five years ago.
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As the star names faded, Daniel Brown held firm. The general consensus may have been that the world’s 272nd-ranked player would fade on day two after first-round heroics put him atop the rankings. Instead, Brown posted a fine 72 to only fall from six under to five under. Justin Rose, like Brown, had to come through the final round of qualifying to secure his spot in the 152nd Open. The 2013 US Open champion seems on a mission to prove that those hard yards are now a thing of the past. Rose added a 68 to Thursday’s 69 to equal Brown’s total.
Scottie Scheffler is hiding in plain sight at minus two. Two consecutive 70s from the world No. 1 suggest he’s finally come to grips with links golf. But for a dropped shot on the last, where Scheffler couldn’t get up and down from 70 yards, he would have been even closer to Lowry. Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, was seen lying prone at various points in the round as he battled the effects of food poisoning. “We didn’t know if he was going to be able to go this morning,” Scheffler said.
“On the ninth, he literally sat on the 10th tee for 10 minutes while we were putting. I didn’t even see him, which was a little unusual. He’s a fighter. He did a good job today and fought through it.”
This Open has been a war of attrition. So far, so good for Lowry.