As the wind whipped, Shane Lowry let rip. Royal Troon’s 11th hole is treacherous enough without unwanted interventions. As Lowry stood above his second shot, a cameraman raised his lens. Lowry arrowed the ball straight left and into a gorse bush. Open Championship bids can be reduced to ruin with moments such as these.
Television commentators apologised as Lowry’s intemperate outburst towards the gentleman who had driven him to distraction was clearly picked up by microphones. Lowry’s mood was barely improved as a member of the public found his stray ball in an area which is perfectly nice to look at but horrible – and sore – to be in. The Irishman would rather have played on with his provisional ball. At this point, you could almost see the steam emanating from his ears.
Lowry steadied himself. After taking a penalty drop, he escaped with a double bogey six to retain a share of the Open lead. By close of play, Lowry had retrieved those two shots and set himself apart from the field by the same margin. His response to adversity was one of a champion.
Lowry takes up the story of a scenario that played out over 20 minutes. “There was a cameraman and as he was walking up, I asked him to stop or move back and he just kind of stayed there,” the 2019 champion said. “As I was over the ball, he put his camera up. I saw it out of the corner of my eye. I should have stood off it, my own fault.” Suffice to say, this was not Lowry’s sentiment at the time.
“I did the hard part. I hit my drive where you could find it, which is obviously a hard thing to do on that hole. I had a nice lie in the rough. I just kind of lost a bit of train of thought. You’re so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left.
“I hit a great provisional. The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said no. So I assumed that was OK. Then we get down there and somebody had found it. So apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it. I thought if you declared it lost before it was found that you didn’t have to go and identify it. I was happy enough leaving there with a six. It wasn’t a disaster.”
There were quite enough of those elsewhere. Tiger Woods comfortably missed the cut. So, too, did the 2022 champion Cameron Smith. Tommy Fleetwood and Ludvig Åberg? No more. Home hero Robert MacIntyre played his first four holes in eight over par to end his Claret Jug bid. Justin Thomas, who sat in third place overnight, slumped to a front nine of 45. Rory McIlroy was in reverse-ferret mode long before the turn. An early departure was inevitable after a triple bogey at the fourth. His bid for a fifth major title will rumble into 2025.
This was a fiendishly difficult Friday, as evidenced by only 10 players under par after 36 holes. Among them are Xander Schauffele and Jason Day. At plus one, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka lurk with menace.
Lowry’s prominence owes much to preparation. He visited Troon the week before the Open, where he was able to test the course in a similar wind to what has been in play in competition days. “If I give myself a chance on Sunday, I know I can do it,” Lowry added. This of course conjures memories of Royal Portrush, five years ago.
As stellar names wilted, Daniel Brown held strong. General consensus may have been that the 272nd ranked player in the world would disappear on day two after first-round heroics that put him atop the leaderboard. Instead, Brown posted a fine 72 to slide back only from six to five under. Justin Rose, like Brown, had to come through final qualifying to book his place in the 152nd Open. The 2013 US Open champion appears on a mission to prove those hard yards will be unnecessary from now on. Rose added a 68 to Thursday’s 69, therefore matching Brown’s aggregate.
1 Shane Lowry (Ire) -7
T2 Daniel Brown (Eng), Justin Rose (Eng) -5
T4 Billy Horschel (US), Dean Burmester (SA) -2, Scottie Scheffler (US) -2
T7 Corey Conners (Can), Jason Day (Aus), Xander Schauffele (US), Patrick Cantlay (US) -1
T11 Matthew Jordan (Eng), Joaquin Niemann (Chi) Par
T13 Dustin Johnson (US), Brooks Koepka (US), Collin Morikawa (US), Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Jon Rahm (Sp) +1
Missed cut (selected players)
Keegan Bradley (US) +7; Henrik Stenson (Swe), Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Louis Oosthuizen (SA) all +8; Ludvig Åberg (Swe), Bryson DeChambeau (US), Francesco Molinari (It), Tommy Fleetwood (Eng), Zach Johnson (US) all +9; Tony Finau (US), Viktor Hovland (Nor) both +10; Rory McIlroy (NI) +11; Cameron Smith (Aus) +12; Tiger Woods (US), Sahith Theegala (US) both +14; Wyndham Clark (US) +16.
Scottie Scheffler is hiding in plain sight at minus two. Back-to-back 70s from the world No 1 suggest he has finally come to grips with links golf. But for a dropped shot at the last, where Scheffler failed to get up and down from 70 yards, he would be even closer to Lowry. Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, was seen lying down at various points of 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 was literally sitting on the 10th tee for 10 minutes while we were putting out. I didn’t even see him, which was a bit unusual. He’s a fighter. He did a good job today and battled through it.”
This Open has become a war of attrition. So far, so good for Lowry.
