Patient Lowry keeps the faith at The K Club

Shane Lowry. Picture: Logan Whitton/USGA

The subtle fist bump between Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry said it all as the rain hammered down on the little tent housing the interview area behind The K Club's 18th green and the home heroes wrapped up their opening rounds.

Winning another soggy Amgen Irish Open might be an ideal outcome for the likes of Lowry and Rory McIlroy, but playing well and avoiding any unwelcome muttering about form heading into the Ryder Cup comes a close second.

While Harrington still smiled and waved at the crowds as he battled an ice-cold putter and shot 74, and McIlroy blamed being put on the clock as he turned a 69 into a 71 with two late bogeys, Lowry shot a 69 that left him joint 12th, just three shots behind leaders Nacho Elvira, Thorbjorn Olesen and Romain Langasque.

The Offaly man has not been at his brilliant best of late, but he admitted that heading to Bethpage Black feeling good about his game is his biggest concern

Harrington's little acknowledgement of Lowry's opening round spoke volumes.

"The one thing you want going into the Ryder Cup is you want to be playing comfortably," Lowry said of a round where he was one over through eight holes and struggling for momentum.

"You don't want to feel uncomfortable with your game. You don't want to be going to New York trying to find your game.

"So the next two weeks are pretty important that way. But when you get here, the Irish Open means so much to me."

Lowry three-putted his sixth hole of the day, but birdied the par-five 18th and fourth holes before making some crucial putts late on.

A ten-footer for birdie at the sixth catapulted him into the top 10, and after making a six-footer to avoid another three-putt at the eighth, he rolled in a 14-footer at the ninth for a closing birdie.

"You could see early on, I was one over and there were guys going out four or five under after nine holes," Lowry said. "I'm happy with how I handled that. Handled not putting too much pressure on myself to get a score back."

He was also happy with the new driver he's put in the bag this week.

"I have been struggling to find the driver I love this year, and yeah, that was good today," he said, smiling. "But it is only one day. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

Elvira shot a bogey-free 66 to take the lead before being joined at the top by Dane Olesen and French star Langasque.

They were a shot clear of Austria's Bernd Wiesberger, England's Dan Brown, France's Adrien Saddier and Zander Lombard, who was in the last group of the day on the ninth, when a torrential downpour lashed the course in near darkness, and they accepted the option to finish their rounds early today.

The South African was playing alongside Laytown and Bettystown's Alex Maguire, who got to four-under with four holes to play but double bogeyed the seventh after driving out of bounds.

The former Walker Cup player (24) has sprinkled mini tour starts between sporadic HotelPlanner Tour invitations with little success so far this year, and a big week could be career-changing.

He made six birdies and will resume in joint 25th on two under after a tough afternoon of sunshine, rain squalls and preferred lies.

McIlroy was a shot further back, five shots off the pace, after he bogeyed his 16th and 17th holes (the seventh and eighth) to shoot 71 as a referee lurked with a stopwatch.

He was tied for 50th with Tom McKibbin as Seamus Power and Robert Moran shot level par 72s to share 63rd.

Power was motoring at three under through ten holes, but he bogeyed at the 11th and 13th and then found the Liffey from the fairway at the treacherous 17th to run up a double-bogey six.

"A couple of better iron shots and it could easily have been three, four under," the West Waterford man said after a closing birdie. "As soon as you think that (you're going well), you just miss a fairway or do something (wrong) and it's going to be tough."

Cork amateur John Doyle (18) opened with back-to-back birdies, but a 74 left him tied for 104th with Harrington and Kilkenny's Mark Power.

Conor Purcell shot 76 and Max Kennedy a 78 on a challenging day with both pencilling in a double-bogey and a triple bogey on their cards.