How does it feel when you don't know where the golf ball is going to go? Shane Lowry found out yesterday, and it wasn't a nice feeling. "I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me," said a downbeat Lowry after a disastrous opening round 78, seven-over, derailed his Claret Jug ambitions.
Lowry – runner-up to Dustin Johnson in the US Open last month - struggled from the get-go. Nothing went right for him. By the time he got to the 11th tee, the Offalyman was so demoralised he turned to his caddie Dermot Byrne. "I actually don't know where this is going to go," Lowry said to him. He was in a state of shock.
Afterwards, he recalled: “It’s the hardest tee shot in the world, and you feel as if the whole world is watching . . . . I didn’t think I was ever going to hit a good shot, which was weird.”
Having started out with such high expectations, Lowry was brought back to earth with a bang as the bogeys piled up at a rate that had him in a spin.
“That’s as lonely as I felt on a golf course in a while. I didn’t enjoy it, which is not nice. It is not a nice feeling to have out there when you are not enjoying it. You’re playing in the biggest tournament in the world on one of the best courses in the world with a couple of the best players in the world, what’s not to enjoy? But if you’re hitting it like I was today, it’s not nice.”
He added: “I feel like the game just keeps disappointing me week after week. Look, the best week of my (golfing) life was only a few weeks ago (at Oakmont) yet it was one of the most disappointing for me.”
Richie Ramsay or Lazarus?
Richie Ramsay may not have had the distinction of leading after the first round, or of soaking up the applause for a hole-in-one as Louis Oosthuizen managed after his ace on the 14th.
But the Scot deserved plaudits of his own in which managed to literally get out of his sick bed to compile an opening 73 that gives him a chance to survive the cut.
Ramsay – who’d earned his spot in the field with a strong finish at the Scottish Open – had been unable to play any practice rounds in the days running up to the championship after being confined to bed with a virus which required medical treatment.
But the Scot and his caddie, Dubliner Colin Byrne, came up with a gameplan that worked. “We got the strategy right and conserved the energy. I felt good. Maybe I wasn’t 100 per cent but I wasn’t far off it,” said Ramsay of his Lazarus-like revivial.
Word of Mouth (I)
“It’s one of the toughest holes I’ve ever played, just a scary tee shot. You can’t see where you are going” - Billy Horschel on the challenge of hitting a tee shot on the 11th, which ranked as the toughest hole on the course.
Word of Mouth (II)
“I hit one bad shot all day . . . . and I hit it on the wrong spot. That hole has been killing me all week, even in practice” - Bubba Watson on how the 123 yards long Postage Stamp has gotten to him. Watson ran up a triple-bogey six there.
By the numbers
26/63: Phil Mickelson had 26 putts in his opening round, becoming the 11th player in Major history to post a 63.
4.613: The Par 5 fourth hole played as the easiest of all in the first round, averaging 4.613: there were three eagles, 73 birdies, 64 pars, 13 bogeys and three double-bogeys.
