Shane Lowry’s Abu Dhabi defence crumbles in the sand

Defending champion Shane Lowry finished with back-to-back bogeys to miss the cut by one shot at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Friday.

Having made bogey on the 17th to slip back to the cut mark on one under, Lowry found the sand with his fairway wood, leaving himself a lengthy bunker shot. Trying to land it on the fringe and roll up the green to leave him a birdie chance, the British Open champion was unlucky to leave his ball just in the bunker, doubly so as the ball failed to roll back down to level ground.

And things got worse when his fourth shot just made it out, with the sand seeming to explode under Lowry’s wedge and leaving a huge hole under where his ball was. In his frustration, Lowry then buried his club in the hole a few times.

He then failed to get down from off the green, finishing with a two-over 74 to end one side outside the cut on level par.

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Ryder Cup captain Pádraig Harrington also missed out, his level-par 72 leaving him on four over.

Playing in the same three-ball as Lowry, USPGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka also made bogey on the final hole as he carded a three-over 75. The American will still be around at the weekend after his opening 66 as he finished the day on three under.

Italy's Francesco Laporta, the winner of last season's Challenge Tour, leads the way in Abu Dhabi after five straight birdies coming home helped him card a brilliant nine-under-par 63.

That moved the 29-year-old to 10 under, one shot clear of England's Matthew Fitzpatrick after he added a five-under 67 to his opening 68, and Spain's Rafa Cabrera-Bello, who paired his opening 67 with a 68 on Friday.

Sergio Garcia carded a 69 to take a share of fourth spot along with Italy's Renato Paratore (72) and China's Haotong Li (69).

LEADERBOARD
Britain and Ireland unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateur

134 Francesco Laporta (Ita) 71 63

135 Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Esp) 67 68, Matthew Fitzpatrick 68 67

136 Haotong Li (Chn) 67 69, Sergio Garcia (Esp) 67 69, Renato Paratore (Ita) 64 72

137 Adri Arnaus (Esp) 70 67, Kurt Kitayama (USA) 67 70, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 69 68, Patrick Cantlay (USA) 71 66, Lee Westwood 69 68

138 David Law 70 68, Lucas Herbert (Aus) 69 69, Joost Luiten (Ned) 70 68, Zander Lombard (Rsa) 67 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 69 69, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 68 70

139 Zach Murray (Aus) 67 72, Scott Hend (Aus) 69 70, Yuxin Lin (a) (Chn) 69 70, Sebastian Soderberg (Swe) 75 64, Thomas Detry (Bel) 69 70, Nacho Elvira (Esp) 72 67

140 Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 70, Richie Ramsay 71 69, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 69 71, Branden Grace (Rsa) 68 72, Jack Singh Brar 70 70, Joakim Lagergren (Swe) 75 65, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 74 66, Jason Scrivener (Aus) 66 74, Andy Sullivan 69 71, Victor Perez (Fra) 70 70, Masahiro Kawamura (Jpn) 69 71

141 Ross Fisher 70 71, Shaun Norris (Rsa) 64 77, Martin Kaymer (Ger) 68 73, Oliver Fisher 71 70, Tommy Fleetwood 71 70, Jack Senior 71 70, Erik Van Rooyen (Rsa) 73 68, Edoardo Molinari (Ita) 68 73, Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 68 73, Matthieu Pavon (Fra) 71 70, Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 69 72, Ashley Chesters 72 69, Romain Langasque (Fra) 70 71, Brooks Koepka (USA) 66 75, Shubhankar Sharma (Ind) 71 70, David Drysdale 70 71

142 Justin Harding (Rsa) 69 73, Paul Waring 71 71, David Howell 70 72, Grant Forrest 74 68, Sam Horsfield 73 69, Thomas Bjorn (Den) 71 71, David Lipsky (USA) 73 69, Jordan Smith 74 68, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 71 71, Sean Crocker (USA) 72 70

143 Andrew Johnston 69 74, Matt Wallace 73 70, Sebastian Heisele (Ger) 70 73, Alexander Bjork (Swe) 73 70, Brandon Stone (Rsa) 71 72, Jorge Campillo (Esp) 71 72, Scott Jamieson 71 72, Victor Dubuisson (Fra) 70 73, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 70 73, Jeff Winther (Den) 73 70, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 71 72, Justin Walters (Rsa) 73 70, Gavin Green (Mal) 73 70.

MISSED CUT

144 Richard Bland 69 75, Steven Brown 73 71, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 73 71, Guido Migliozzi (Ita) 71 73, Mikko Korhonen (Fin) 70 74, Chris Paisley 73 71, George Coetzee (Rsa) 72 72, Thongchai Jaidee (Tha) 70 74, Robert Rock 69 75, Shane Lowry 70 74, Calum Hill 71 73, Lorenzo Gagli (Ita) 73 71, Alexander Levy (Fra) 71 73, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 70

145 Roope Kakko (Fin) 72 73, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 72 73, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 74 71, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 77

146 Marcus Armitage 77 69, Thomas Aiken (Rsa) 76 70, Richard McEvoy 71 75, Julien Guerrier (Fra) 74 72, Danny Willett 71 75, Tom Lewis 75 71, Matthew Southgate 70 76, James Morrison 71 75, Dean Burmester (Rsa) 73 73, Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin) 72 74, Stephen Gallacher 74 72, Fabrizio Zanotti (Pry) 75 71, Adrian Otaegui (Esp) 73 73

147 Jeunghun Wang (Kor) 71 76, Adrian Meronk (Pol) 74 73, Jamie Donaldson 75 72, Ian Poulter 73 74, Eddie Pepperell 73 74, Nino Bertasio (Ita) 74 73

148 Andrea Pavan (Ita) 74 74, Pádraig Harrington 76 72, Pablo Larrazabal (Esp) 74 74

149 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 77 72, Bryson DeChambeau (USA) 72 77, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) 77 72

150 Joshua Hill 74 76, Maximilian Kieffer (Ger) 76 74, Callum Shinkwin 74 76, Benjamin Hebert (Fra) 77 73, Alvaro Quiros (Esp) 77 73

151 David Horsey 75 76, Ashun Wu (Chn) 77 74

152 Paul Lawrie 78 74, Aaron Rai 78 74

153 Joachim B Hansen (Den) 80 73, Kalle Samooja (Fin) 72 81, Gaganjeet Bhullar (Ind) 79 74

154 Graeme Storm 76 78

157 Oliver Wilson 76 81

159 Chris Wood 84 75

169 Ahmed Skaik (Are) 84 85