Shane Lowry’s quest for a second Claret Jug remained very much on course, as he followed up an opening 66 with a 69 that showcased his resilient for a midway total of seven-under-par 135 that moved him into the clubhouse lead in this 152nd Open Championship at a windswept Royal Troon links hard by the Firth of Clyde.
As southerly winds whipped the dunelands, a double-bogey six on the notoriously difficult par 4 11th – known as Railway, with the tracks running down the right hand side – threatened to derail Lowry, the 2019 champion, but he stubbornly and brilliantly stuck to his task and finished with a 20-footer for a birdie on the 18th which had him raising a clenched fist to the skies.
Lowry compiled five birdies, jumping out of the stalls on the first and claiming further birdies on the eighth, the famed Postage Stamp, and also on the par 5 16th, where he had an eagle look, and the 18th.
The manner of his recovery from that double-bogey six on the 11th, where he was disturbed by a photographer as he played his second shot which then flew left into gorse bushes, was hugely impressive. He regained his composure, splitting fairway after fairway thereafter, and the reward for Lowry’s composed response was delivered with two birdies in his closing three holes. Indeed, he almost made it a hat-trick as his attempt on the par 3 17th lipped the cup.
Lowry’s 36-holes total of 135 left him five shots clear of those he joined in the clubhouse, with American Billy Horschel making the most of an early morning start before the winds grew ever stronger for a 68 for 140. Horschel was joined on that mark by South African Dean Burmester, who signed for a second round 69.
Of that double on 11, where his scorecard had the potential to be a train wreck, Lowry explained:
“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 got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought. You’re so afraid of going right there [on the railway line] that I just snagged the club and went left.
“Then from there, 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 okay. Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. So apparently you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn’t, you didn’t have to go and identify it.
“I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes, it was whatever it was, of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing, and I felt like Darren [Reynolds] did a great job, he kept telling me, ‘we have loads of time. We don’t need to rush this. We just need to do the right thing here’.
“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a six. It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
Pádraig Harrington, a two-timer winner of the Open but who primarily plays on the Champions Tour these days, showed his competitiveness with a 73 for three-over-par 145 to ensure he would survive the cut.
“Cuts are always a nasty thing. Definitely, if there was no cut line, I would have been a couple of shots better. You do start thinking, and I shouldn’t have,” said the 52-year-old Dubliner.
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