Anxious Lowry and cool customer Power bookend day of sunshine and shadows for Irish at The K Club
Shane Lowry. Picture: PGA of America
Shane Lowry and Mark Power bookended a sun-kissed opening day of the Horizon Irish Open with four-under 68s to give the home fans plenty to cheer about at The K Club.
On an Indian summer's day when, fittingly, Subshankar Sharma made an eagle and five birdies in a seven-under 65 to lead by a shot from Jordan Smith and former champions Ross Fisher and Thomas Bjorn, Lowry got the show on the road with a seven-birdie round that left him tied for 13th with Kilkenny rookie Power and very much in the mix for a tilt at a second Irish Open title.
The Offlay man is very much the present of Irish golf, but Power (23) showed he's a man for the future when he chipped in for an eagle at the 18th on his professional debut to go bogey-free and match the Offaly man's 68.
“It was a terrible number on the shot in,” Power said. “I could have tried to hit a hard 4 but you are obviously bringing in the water so I just tried to choke up a two and it came in a bit flat but I knew long was too bad and all I had to do was get that thing running down and it luckily it found
“I had 226 but it was a little into, so had it playing about a 240 shot. Not my best number…..stopped on the lip (and fell).”
It was a very mixed day for the Irish as Rory McIlroy — who confirmed that the R&A are "seriously looking" at Portmarnock as a venue for The Open — shot a scrappy 69 to tie for 25th.
But they were the only Irishmen inside the projected cut line as Tom McKibbin made just one birdie in a 72, and Pádraig Harrington suffered on the greens and shot 73, leaving him needing a possible 68 to make the cut.
"I struggled with the scoring, didn't I?" Harrington said. "Just a pity. You've got to hole some putts and I didn't hole anything, and a couple of three putts didn't help."
The three-time Major winner was tied for 102nd with Kinsale's John Murphy as Conor Purcell shot 74 and amateur Alex Maguire and Jonny Caldwell a pairs of 76s.
Thankfully for the sponsors, headline acts Lowry and McIlroy gave the big galleries plenty to cheer.
Lowry was as relieved as he was pleased to make seven birdies in a four-under 68 that left him just three behind Sharma.
A good week would take the spotlight off his Ryder Cup wildcard and he admitted he was anxious after a season of much great golf but few results.
"Yeah but not much frees you up this week though, lads," said the Clara man, who admitted to feeling homesick this year after spending more than six months in the US.
"This week is a big week for me and I want to play well and go out there and give myself a chance to win this tournament.
"It's only an hour or 45 minutes to an hour away from Clara. I want people to be in their buses on Sunday morning and come here to watch me try and win this tournament.
"That's all I want this week. It has nothing to do with the Ryder Cup or Wentworth next week or anything. This tournament for me is huge."
The 2009 champion played beautifully for most of the day and while a few seven-footers failed to drop, he was not too upset by his bogey-birdie-bogey finish.
"I'm always a little bit anxious going into this tournament and I was a little bit anxious going out there this morning about what was going to happen," said the former Open champion, who made three birdies and a bogey in his first six holes before following birdies at the first, third and fourth with that up and down finish.
"But I went out there and got off to a good start. Did a lot of things pretty well and I'm pretty happy with my morning's work."
As for McIlroy, the world number two was playing just behind Lowry and he did what all the top players do and turned a potential 73 into a 69.
"Chiselling out a score is probably a very good way of putting it," McIlroy said after a birdie-birdie finish. "I don't feel like I played particularly well. But my short game was sharp, my putting was actually pretty good and I made some good up-and-downs when I needed to.
"I think the two birdies on the last two holes sort of gloss over what was a pretty average day. But you know, the one thing I feel like I've done really well over these past couple of years is manage my game. Even though I didn't play particularly well, today, I can still go out there and shoot something in the 60s and not fall too far behind."
McIlroy has been aware of the dimension of the Irish Open ever since he flew into Dublin from the European Young Masters in 2003 and saw the set-up at Portmarnock for that year's Irish Open.
It's no secret that the R&A has been looking at the course and McIlroy confirmed The Open is very much in their thinking.
"They're seriously looking at it," he said. "So I think it would be fantastic. Honestly, I was quite sceptical, well not sceptical, I was looking forward to Portrush, but just in terms of how it would do commercially, there's so many other considerations to hosting a major championship apart from being a great golf course.
"There has to be a lot of stuff that that makes sense. But, you know, having a course that's so close to a major city, so close to a major airport, having a great golf course, I think it would be amazing."
As for Power, he could not have hoped for a better professional debut.
"Great, yeah, first round as a pro, started with a birdie and finished with an eagle, so it doesn't get much better," said the Kilkenny man, who goes to the First Stage of Q-School next week. "It was a nice way to finish there.
"I felt really comfortable all day, I suppose having a good pal of mine, Alex Fitz(patrick) alongside helped and Nicolas Colsaerts, I grew up watching him on TV playing Ryder Cups and he was an absolute gent.
"I have been lucky over the years. I've got a lot of opportunities to play the Irish Open, so I felt somewhat at ease and didn't feel like it was unfamiliar territory almost. So, yeah, look, I was obviously very grateful to get those opportunities before and they definitely stood to me today."
Power has Dermot Byrne on the bag this week as Leona Maguire is not playing and he was hugely pleased with his first round as a pro,
He made a 12 footer at the first and a 17-footer at the tough seventh. The par fives were not kind to him until he got to the last and made eagle but while it would be tempting to starting thinking of what might be, he’s determined to stay focussed.
Power was one of the stars for Great and Ireland in the Walker Cup last weekend, winning three matches out of four in a disappointing defeat.
“It was pretty scrappy at times, but I grinded it pretty well,” he said of a round where he hit his second into the Liffey at the 16th but then hit a wedge to a foot to save par.
“I would say that’s one of the strengths of my game, I am not too flashy. I like to get in, get involved and get stuck in and don’t really mind how I do it just as long as I grind it out.
“I hit it in the water on 16, disappointed with that, hitting the wedge shot in tight was a big relief.
“I wasn’t sure how fresh I would be feeling after the high of last week just a stressful week but I felt great out there, conditions were perfect. I’ll rest up tonight and get at it tomorrow morning.
“I am not one to get ahead of myself. I shot four-under today but it is a long week, just park that and put the head down and commit to each shot at a time.”
Aa for having the experienced Byrne on his bag, he was grateful.
“Dermot caddied for me at Galgorm so it was nice to get him back on the bag this week,” he said. “I know he is a busy man with Leona Maguire but thankfully, she was good enough to let him free, worked out great, happened to be free in my first pro event.”
Preferred lies were in place due to mud balls. While the fairways were replaced 18 months ago, the grass destiny is not quite high enough yet to prevent the ball picking up debris.
You know, I did have a lot of mud balls out there,” Lowry said. “I was pretty happy that they did that The fairways are very new. They're in great condition and the course in great condition, and they're some of the best greens I've ever seen in Ireland. So that was pretty good for me. They're pretty new and the grass is probably not as dense as they would like.”
