Shane Lowry looked as if he’d been placed through the wringer on a wickedly wet and miserable day on the links, as his quest for glory in the 152nd Open Championship on the links hard by the Firth of Clyde
American Billy Horschel – opting to forego rain gear and tilting his baseball cap backwards to negate the persistent rain – shot a scarcely believable 69 in the conditions to claim the 54-hole lead on four-under-par 209, a shot clear of a sextet of players, while Lowry slid down the leaderboard to ninth after a 77 for 212, three shots adrift.
This was a Jekyll and Hyde weather day, where those with early tee-times had pet conditions with barely a hint of a wind yet those later starters, among them Lowry in the final group, were forced to contend with persistent rain and a wind that gathered in strength so that players failed to find greens with drivers on Par 3s coming home.
“Playing a par-3 hitting drivers is not much craic. Roll the ball back, huh?” he asked without any further need to elaborate.
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Lowry – mentally battered and bruised after one of his toughest days on a links – sought to put perspective on what had unfolded, yet was defiant in believing that his was not a lost cause and that he was still in the fight headed into the final round.
“Obviously, there is no doubt but that I am going to go out there tomorrow thinking I can win the tournament, but it is just hard right now. You have to give me a bit of leeway. Ten minutes ago I had a putt for par on the 18th green and I’m here now talking to you guys trying to figure out how I hit a 77 in my own head.
“This game is just hard and you nearly feel hard-done by for playing well the first two days [to then get] those conditions. It was, honestly, brutal,” said Lowry, adding defiantly:
“At three back, you are still right in the tournament, but it is going to take me a couple of hours to get over today. I am obviously very gutted now but I have a job to do tomorrow and a chance to win this tournament.”
Where did it all go wrong for Lowry, who’d actually played the first seven holes beautifully without getting his true reward?
The starting point was on the course’s shortest hole, the eighth, par 3 Postage Stamp.
There, Lowry’s tee shot ran into the Coffin bunker, a rectangular trap that would test any escapologist and, although he managed to escape, the ball scarpered on and on in ultimately running up a double-bogey five.
“I guess, for me, the 8th hole was a killer really.”
At that stage, though, he was still top – alongside Horschel and Brown on six-under – but the drip-drip slide downwards continued on the 11th, where his second shot flew low and left and hit an on-course commentator as he ran up a bogey and, in thoroughly miserable conditions of wind and rain, suffered another bogey on the 12th. Another on 13. Another on 14.
By the time Lowry reached the 18th tee, his body and mind had been pummelled by a homeward run where he – and others – struggled in the strong wind, which grew ever stronger, and persistent rain. His drive on the 18th flew wildly right and his 3-wood approach again right, into the gantry of the grandstand from where he got a drop but failed to get up and down, his putt, one of the many to stop tantalisingly short of the cup for a finishing bogey.
“I really wanted to hole that putt on the last. I knew Billy made bogey and knew Dan had obviously made double and I would only be two back. It is just hard because I felt I played a lot of unbelievable golf today. I didn’t miss my first fairway until 16 and hit some great iron shots. I just didn’t hole the putts early on when I had chances and then I missed a few par putts,” elaborated Lowry.
This was a third round where those who got out early leapfrogged those ahead, none more so that Sam Burns and Thriston Lawrence who shot 65s and Russell Henley who shot 66 to move into a six-way tie for second alongside Dan Brown (who doubled the last), Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele.
Horschel, to his credit, displayed remarkable – and numerous – feats of scrambling in time and time getting up and down, from bunkers and from swales, in beating the conditions to sign for a 69 for 209 to take the 54-hole lead and claim pole position headed into the final round.
The last six majors have been won by the player with the 54-hole lead, so advantage Horschel.
However, the chasing pack – a sextet of them, Brown joining a list of heavy hitters with pedigree – just a shot behind; and world number one Scottie Scheffler in eighth, two behind; and Lowry in ninth, three behind, makes anything far from a done deal yet.
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