FORMER Open champion Shane Lowry felt he let a good round slip away after signing for a one-over-par 72 on the first day of the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool yesterday.
The 2019 winner at Royal Portrush has found decent form over the last few weeks and headed into the final Major of the season in confident mood.
That feelgood factor was bolstered by a birdie at the first hole yesterday, but it was a mixed bag thereafter and two dropped shots in his final six holes left the Offaly man on the wrong side of par and with work to do to get back in the mix in the second round.
Lowry said he was disappointed with his finish, even though there there was plenty of good play across the opening 18 holes.
“Level par with four to play out there, and with the two par-fives to come, you think you’re going to give yourself a chance to shoot under-par,” he said.
“I didn’t feel like it was that easy. I felt like the back nine was playing quite tricky. To get the ball in the fairway and get irons in your hand, tricky shots, wind in out of the left.”
Given the tricky conditions, nobody was really able to get away from the field yesterday, and Lowry isn’t out of things, and neither is Seamus Power, who fought hard all day to sign for a
level-par 71.
The Waterford man was forced to withdraw from the Genesis Scottish Open last week with a hip issue, but a steady day on the Hoylake links will have lifted his mood.
Power birdied the fifth before dropping shots at each of the next two holes. However, another birdie at the par-five 15th left him within touching distance in just his second Open Championship.
He was playing alongside double Open winner Padraig Harrington, who toiled to a 74 and declared himself out of the hunt for a third Claret Jug.
The Dubliner dropped four shots in the space of three holes from the fourth, and while a two at nine sent him to the turn in three-over, the shot was handed back at the next.
Further birdies at 13 and 14 lifted spirits again, but a bogey at 17 and a failure to pick anything up at the par-five 15th and 18th left him down in the mouth.
“The problem with Majors now is you don’t come back, you don’t compete, you’ve got to keep yourself inside that 15 spots,” Harrington said.
“You don’t come back from way out in Majors. You can make cuts, but you’ve got to be hanging around near that top 10.”
Harrington’s fellow Champions Tour regular Darren Clarke, the 2011 Open champion, was one better after a 73, while Co Meath amateur Alex Maguire fought hard for a 72 that looked likely to be worse after he double-bogeyed the 15th.
However, birdie fours at the 15th and 18th gave his maiden Major round a bit of added gloss.
