Golf:After enjoying the best finish of his professional career at the PGA Championship, Shane Lowry promptly booked his place at the US Open for the first time during qualifying today.
The Offaly man, who tied for fourth place at Wentworth, comfortably made it through on eight under after rounds of 69 and 67 at the fog-delayed 36-hole qualifying event at Walton Heath.
The 24-year-old former Irish Open winner is making a habit of shining in qualifying events. He shot 62 at Sunningdale last year to earn a place in the British Open at St Andrews.
A total of 82 players were competing for 11 spots at Congressional, and while play was likely to spill over to tomorrow morning due to a delay of over three hours, Lowry was safely through.
Colin Montgomerie failed to book a return to the Congressional — the course where he was runner-up to Ernie Els in 1997. Boosted by his seventh place at Wentworth — his first top 10 finish for almost three years — Montgomerie managed only a one over par total of 145.
Now he will have to be content with a television commentating role rather than a playing one in Washington in two weeks’ time.
“If you don’t enter you can’t win — I gave it a go,” said the Scot after following an opening 72 with a second round 73 played mostly in rain. “That’s hard work — it was miserable out there.”
Still in with a chance at level par with two par fives to come, the 47-year-old, back up from 462nd in the world to 305th with his efforts in the European Tour’s flagship event, failed to birdie either the 14th and 16th and in between had one of seven three-putts during the day.
Also out on one over went Ryder Cup star Ross Fisher, but two years after finishing fifth in the US Open he still has a chance of making it. Fisher stands 52nd in the world and the top 50 at the end of next week receive invitations.
Frenchman Thomas Levet, who like Montgomerie worked for television at the US Masters, finished just a stroke behind Lowry.
The real drama in the 36-hole event came at 9.15pm and involved Richie Ramsay. On four under par Ramsay was needed for a play-off with Swede Johan Edfors and Dane Andreas Harto for the last of the 11 spots on offer.
The problem was that former US Amateur champion Ramsay had left hours earlier to try to catch a plane to Belfast for the wedding reception of Gareth Maybin. He missed the flight, but arrived back at the Surrey course just as Edfors beat Harto on the first extra hole.
“It’s just been an horrific day — an awful, awful day,” said the Aberdeen golfer. “As I left it was 5.30pm and guys were teeing off the first. I actually feel physically sick — I can’t believe they played when it was pitch dark.”
Collated scores & totals in the US Open 36-hole qualifying competition
(Gbr and Irl unless stated, Irish in bold, 11 players to qualify, both courses par 72):
135Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel) 64 71
136 Shane Lowry69 67, Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 73 63
137Thomas Levet (Fra) 66 71
138Robert Rock 70 68, David Howell 72 66
139Stephen Gallacher 70 69, Alexander Noren (Swe) 67 72, Marcel Siem (Ger) 67 72, Robert Dinwiddie 69 70
140(after play-off) Johan Edfors (Swe) 70 70
*** The following players failed to qualify ***
140Richie Ramsay 71 69, Andreas Harto (Den) 70 70
141Soren Hansen (Den) 69 72, Wade Ormsby (Aus) 69 72, Jamie Donaldson 67 74, Raphael Jacquelin (Fra) 68 73, Gregory Bourdy (Fra) 68 73
142Gary Boyd 72 70, Shiv Kapur (Ind) 72 70, Mark Tullo (Chi) 72 70, Rhys Davies 71 71, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 69 73, Nick Dougherty 72 70
143Alejandro Canizares (Spa) 73 70, Daniel Vancsik (Arg) 68 75, Martin Wiegele (Aut) 68 75
144Sam Walker 74 70, Keith Horne (Rsa) 72 72, Steve Webster 76 68, Pablo Martin (Spa) 71 73, Peter O'Malley (Aus) 71 73, Jeppe Huldahl (Den) 73 71, Christian Cevaer (Fra) 72 72
145George Coetzee (Rsa) 72 73, Ross Fisher 74 71, Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 72 73, Colin Montgomerie 72 73, Daniel Gaunt (Aus) 72 73
146Julio Zapata (Arg) 72 74
147 Gary Murphy76 71, Matthew Zions (Aus) 74 73, Romain Wattel (Fra) 69 78, Leif Olson (USA) 72 75
148Simon Khan 73 75149 Andrew Marshall 74 75, David Griffiths 75 74, Pablo Larrazabal (Spa) 73 75, Oscar Floren (Swe) 69 79
149Andrew Dodt (Aus) 73 76, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 72 72
150Ross McGowan 71 79
151Jean-Baptiste Gonnet (Fra) 78 73, Lee Slattery 76 75, Rick Kulacz (Aus) 76 75
153Tjaart van der Walt (Rsa) 75 78
154Mark Haastrup (Den) 76 78
155 Paul Simon(USA) 76 79
157Alexander Levy (Fra) 81 76
