Lowry pays for erratic back nine as McIlroy justifies long break and putter change

Shane Lowry

Shane Lowry paid for some iron play errors and erratic putting when he dropped three shots in his last ten holes to open with a one-over 72 in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow.

Despite looking fitter than ever after his two-week break, the Offaly man finished the day tied for 79th, seven shots behind pal Tommy Fleetwood, who shot a six-under 65 to lead by a shot from Kevin Streelman, KH Lee, Taylor Moore, Xander Schauffele and Ryan Palmer.

Lowry bogeyed the first after bunkering his second, birdied the third from 21 feet and made an eight-footer for par at the fourth before rolling in a 23-footer for a two at the sixth to dip into the red.

He found water with his approach and could only par the par-five seventh, but while he was two-under and just three shots off the lead after missing a 14-footer for an eagle two at the 341-yard eighth, he played his last ten holes in three-over-par.

Bunkered green side at the ninth, he missed from 10 feet for par, then three-putted from 50 feet at the 11th to slip back to level.

He had to make an 18-footer to save par at the 12th after a pulled drive, then dropped another shot at the par-three 13th to slip to one over.

He did well not to drop another shot at the driveable 14th, where he was in water left from the tee but hit a short iron to 10 feet and made the putt for par.

He had an excellent chance for birdie at the par-five 16th but pulled an uphill eight-footer wide, then played the closing stretch, the Green Mile, superbly but couldn’t convert good chances from 15 feet on the last two greens.

He has work to make the cut, but like leader Fleetwood, he’ll be looking to take advantage of an early start today as Rory McIlroy lies tied 16th after a 68 and Seamus Power tied 25th after his 69.

While he’s won six times on the DP World Tour, Fleetwood is still seeking his first PGA Tour win.

“I just have to keep going and wait for those really big results and hopefully start contending again up at the top of the leaderboard and we’ll see what we can do from there,” Fleetwood said after finishing a bogey-free round with birdies at the 17th and 18th, two of the toughest holes on the course.

As for McIlroy, he was pleased to switch back to his mallet putter after using a blade model at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play and the Masters.

“I've used that I use that style of putter since the start of 2019,” McIlroy said. “I’ve dabbled a little bit, but for the last four years, basically I've used that style and it's served me well.

“I had the best putting year ever on tour last year with that putter. So sometimes you just need to miss something for a little bit and then you get it back in your hands and it feels good.”

As for his controversial decision to skip a second designated event, the RBC Heritage the week after his Masters disappointment, he said he felt refreshed.

“I certainly more refreshed than I would have been if I had gone and played Hilton Head, but again this isn't uncommon,” he said. “This is what I've done for the last few years is take three weeks off after Augusta.

“It just so happened a designated event was in one of those three weeks and I knew the consequences of that decision when I made it.

“But you know, for me, I needed to do what was best for me and my family and that was taking a few weeks off but happy to be back.”