One day hot, another day cold: Shane Lowry’s putter has proven to be a temperamental club in his bag, and the Offalyman was forced to endure the cooler side of the flat stick in the second round of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass in Florida, where a second round 74 for a midway total of two-under-par 142 saw him slip and slide down the leaderboard.
As American Chris Kirk claimed the clubhouse lead after a 65 for 137 - which included a run of being six-under for six holes, including a hole-out eagle two on the first, his 10th hole - in the megabucks tournament, with a $15 million purse, Lowry had to show patience as the putter proved to be a disobedient club that misbehaved.
Kirk was later overtaken at the top by English duo Lee Westwood and Matthew Fitzpatrick. Westwood continued his fine form in Florida with a second round of 66 to move to nine under par. Fitzpatrick’s second 68 sees him sit a shot further back on eight under.
Lowry’s switch to a new putting grip, forsaking a lifetime’s use of being left hand below to switch to a right hand below, seemed to have brought instant rewards with his opening round 68 but there were troublesome signs in a second round, including two three-putts on his front nine, as he struggled to put two good rounds back-to-back.
Lowry, who had started the day in tied-third, slipped down the leaderboard (he was tied-17th when he signed his card for a 74 and drifted further away as the second wave benefitted from near-perfect conditions) with those two three-putts, at the 14th and 18th, to turn in 38 strokes, proving costly. Lowry at least managed to get the putter working to an extent on his homeward run, with a 22-footer for birdie on the first and a 20-footer on the fourth but there were also bogeys on the third and seventh to provide further speed bumps to his momentum.
Kirk, a 35-year-old American with four career wins on the PGA Tour, most recently at the 2015 Colonial tournament, but who has battled with alcohol addiction and depression in the meantime, has availed of a tour medical exemption in plotting his return and showcased his improved play with that extraordinary run - which included four birdies and an eagle, from the 15th to the second - that saw him leapfrog his way up the leaderboard.
“I certainly have my highs and lows still, like anybody, but my perspective is so different now that a bad day or a bad week is just not really going to bother me. If I go shoot a 75, no, I wouldn’t call that fun. I wouldn’t say that’s fun. But when I walk off the golf course, that’s it. It doesn’t matter anymore,” said Kirk of his change in attitude.
Kirk credited his caddie Michael Crombie, himself a professional player on the mini-tours, with expert green reading that enabled him to move into contention. “He’s a very good player in his own right . . . . I would say I will most likely continue to use him a little bit more and more (for reading greens) over the weekend.”
A number of players made upward moves, with US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau claiming a successive 69 to join Denny McCarthy - who included a hole-in-one on the third, his 12th - and left-hander Brian Harman and Charley Hoffman on six-under-par 138.
DeChambeau started his round with a double-bogey on the 10th, after a wild tee shot into the trees. A “mess up” is how DeChambeau described that opening hole but he recovered with five birdies and no further dropped shots in compiling his 69 to get into the mix but acknowledged there would be a need for improvement going into the weekend.
“I’m happy with the fact that I’ve still been able to keep myself in it and score well. I’ve been pretty lucky, for the most part. I don’t think that’ll happen this weekend. I’ve got to make sure that my game is good off the tee, so I don’t have those issues occurring and I don’t have to rely on luck for the most part. I have to get it in the fairway,” said DeChambeau.
Rory McIlroy’s opening round 79 had left him with an impossible mission to survive the cut and he failed to make any second round charge, his troubles emphasised by a double-bogey six on the 10th where his wild tee shot finished in the trees and he was required to take a penalty drop en route to a double bogey six.
McIlroy slumped to a 75, leaving him well outside the cut mark of level par.
Collated second round scores and totals (USA unless stated, Par 72):
135 Lee Westwood (Eng) 69 66
136 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 68 68
137 Sergio Garcia (Spa) 65 72, Chris Kirk 72 65
138 Bryson DeChambeau 69 69, Doug Ghim 71 67, Brian Harman 67 71, Charley Hoffman 70 68, Sung Jae Im (Kor) 72 66, Denny McCarthy 69 69
139 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 71 68, Talor Gooch 71 68, Patton Kizzire 70 69
140 Paul Casey (Eng) 73 67, Corey Conners (Can) 68 72, Tom Hoge 69 71, Jon Rahm (Spa) 72 68, Jason Day (Aus) 70 71, Tyler McCumber 72 69, Will Zalatoris 70 71, Scott Brown 71 70
142 Abraham Ancer (Mex) 72 70, Ryan Armour 74 68, Daniel Berger 74 68, Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 70 72, Keegan Bradley 70 72, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 72 70, Jason Kokrak 70 72, Shane Lowry (Irl) 68 74, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 73 69, Ryan Palmer 70 72, Patrick Reed 70 72, Brian Stuard 74 68, Justin Thomas 71 71, Kramer Hickok 74 68
143 Adam Hadwin (Can) 74 69, James Hahn 76 67, Scott Harrington 72 71, Charles Howell III 73 70, Dustin Johnson 73 70, Zach Johnson 75 68, Nate Lashley 74 69, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 72 71, Phil Mickelson 71 72, Cameron Percy (Aus) 73 70, Scott Piercy 73 70, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 71, Brendon Todd 74 69, Harold Varner III 70 73
144 Lucas Glover 75 69, Lanto Griffin 73 71, Billy Horschel 71 73, Matt Jones (Aus) 73 71, Russell Knox (Sco) 71 73, Martin Laird (Sco) 73 71, Adam Long 70 74, Ryan Moore 75 69, Collin Morikawa 71 73, Joaquin Niemann (Chi) 73 71, J. T. Poston 76 68, Patrick Rodgers 74 70, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 69 75, Cameron Smith (Aus) 71 73, Jordan Spieth 70 74, Brendan Steele 72 72, Nick Taylor (Can) 70 74, Michael Thompson 71 73, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 73 71, Aaron Wise 73 71, Harry Higgs 71 73, Victor Perez (Fra) 73 71
The following players did not make the cut:
145 Brice Garnett 74 71, Emiliano Grillo (Arg) 71 74, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 76 69, Mark Hubbard 78 67, Marc Leishman (Aus) 71 74, Luke List 73 72, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 76 69, Sebastian Munoz (Col) 71 74, Scottie Scheffler 74 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 75 70, Adam Schenk 72 73
146 Stewart Cink 76 70, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 75 71, Bo Hoag 74 72, Max Homa 73 73, Viktor Hovland (Nor) 72 74, Danny Lee (Nzl) 72 74, Peter Malnati 76 70, Pat Perez 77 69, Andrew Putnam 74 72, Doc Redman 73 73, Robby Shelton 75 71, Webb Simpson 71 75, Kevin Streelman 73 73, Bubba Watson 76 70, Gary Woodland 70 76
147 Tony Finau 78 69, Branden Grace (Rsa) 74 73, Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 75 72, Andrew Landry 72 75, Tom Lewis (Eng) 73 74, Robert MacIntyre (Sco) 74 73, Graeme McDowell (Irl) 73 74, Francesco Molinari (Ita) 76 71, Robert Streb 76 71, Cameron Tringale 73 74, Steve Stricker 70 77, Sam Ryder 72 75, Scott Stallings 76 71
148 Cameron Champ 75 73, Jason Dufner 73 75, Russell Henley 75 73, Alexander Noren (Swe) 78 70, Ian Poulter (Eng) 77 71, Chez Reavie 73 75, Xander Schauffele 76 72
149 Patrick Cantlay 74 75, Keith Mitchell 76 73, Carlos Ortiz (Mex) 73 76, Brandt Snedeker 74 75, Sepp Straka (Aut) 74 75
150 Austin Cook 77 73, Cameron Davis (Aus) 76 74, Rickie Fowler 77 73, Kevin Kisner 75 75, Anirban Lahiri (Ind) 78 72, Kristoffer Ventura (Nor) 74 76
151 Matt Kuchar 76 75, Troy Merritt 74 77, Richy Werenski 80 71
152 Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 77 75, Beau Hossler 74 78, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 78 74, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 76 76, Wyndham Clark 79 73
153 Tyler Duncan 80 73, Matthew NeSmith 81 72
154 Brian Gay 80 74, Rory McIlroy (Irl) 79 75, Henrik Norlander (Swe) 80 74
155 Hudson Swafford 82 73
157 Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) 76 81, Maverick McNealy 80 77, Jimmy Walker 83 74, Sam Burns 81 76
158 Jim Herman 81 77
159 Henrik Stenson (Swe) 85 74
162 Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 83 79
167 Kyle Stanley 83 84
