Lowry pleased to beat tension and grind out opening 70 in Oklahoma
TULSA, OK - MAY 19: Shane Lowry of Ireland hits his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of the 2022 PGA Championship at the Southern Hills on May 19, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Darren Carroll/PGA of America)
SHANE Lowry dug deep in blustery afternoon conditions to keep his hopes alive in the US PGA Championship at Southern Hills.
The Offaly man was one-over through 10 holes before holing some critical putts on the back nine to open with a level par 70 and share 27th place, five shots behind first-round leader Rory McIlroy,
With windy conditions forecast for the second round this morning, Lowry is bracing himself for another difficult examination.
But he was relieved not to shoot himself out of it alongside Brooks Koepka, who shot 75 and Adam Scott, who ballooned to a 77.
"I'm pretty happy with my score today," he said. "Today was a day you could shoot yourself out of it.
"You know, I watched the golf this morning, and they obviously show all the guys who are making birdies, and it looked easy.
"You feel like you're going out there and you want to shoot a score. But then I had a closer look at the scores and it was pretty difficult. It was tough out there. Hot. Windy. The greens are getting bouncy. Obviously, if you miss the fairway, it's very, very tricky. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with my score."
The Offaly man got a flyer and bogeyed the second, but while he made a nine footer at the fourth to get back to level, he bogeyed the 10th before draining a 25 footer at the 12th to get back to level par.
He was furious to find water with an ambitious, 263-yard second to the par-five 13th.
"I misclubbed it," he said. "It was a bad strike. It was really borderline if it was going to get to the front edge, and you need to hit the perfect shot. I probably should have done something a little different, but I got away with it."
After making an 18 footer for par there, he bogeyed the par-three 14th by finding an awkward spot in a greenside bunker but did well to battle back and play the last four holes in one-under, rolling in a 10 footer at the 17th before wriggling in a testing four-footer at the last.
"I talked about it during the week and talked about it yesterday, you need stuff to happen if you want to do well in these weeks and that's what happened to me today," he said.
"I holed the right putts at the right time—12, 13 and 17. It's nice to shoot level par. I'm five behind Rory and Rory made the golf course look easy this morning.
"It's going be quite windy overnight and tomorrow morning and hopefully, the wind stays up for the guys in the afternoon. I know it's going to be windy tomorrow and going to be difficult, but the plan is the same."
Lowry admitted he was on edge before the round, but while his playing partners struggled, he remained focused.
"That's the first round in three weeks as well and I was a bit anxious going out there," Lowry said. "Obviously, the lads didn't shoot their best scores, but I was just doing my own thing.
"Even though I practised well and feel like I'm hitting the ball well and doing everything pretty solid, you're still a bit anxious about how it's going to go.
"So it's always nice to open up pretty nicely in these big tournaments. I feel like I belong here. Even though it's not a great score by any means, level par is pretty good.
"The greens were really bumpy this afternoon. I managed to hole a couple, but it was tricky because if you hit good shots in there, you weren't really going for them and bashing them four or five feet by.
"It's going to be windy, though, tomorrow with the forecast for pretty strong winds, so we'll see."
