Lowry's grit sums up challenge on Open's fascinating first day at Royal Portrush

Irish Examiner

17-07-2025

Luck. Everyone needs it. Guts too. All the more so on a world-class links course where some of the pin positions on day one had players wondering if it was already Sunday. And in conditions overhead and underfoot that kept the field guessing, adapting and scrambling.
Players and spectators donned waterproofs and then tore them off again as the Dunluce course mixed mugginess with rain and sunshine, and the benign with the brutal. It all amounted to a compelling test of creativity, execution and grit.
Darren Clarke, out early, was able to play his front nine in almost perfect conditions. Thomas Detry was mid-round when the weather flipped like a 'switch'. Thorbjorn Olesen reckoned there were over two hours where it was simply a case of surviving.
'I'm mentally drained,' said Nico Echavarria after a grinding one-over 72 that seemed to take forever – one group managed just eight holes in three hours - because of just how bloody hard the course was playing, the lost balls and the provisionals that needed hitting.
One constant? Six-hour rounds aside, no-one was really complaining.
Think back to the storms and the slog in Royal Troon 12 a year ago and the roll call of players grumbling. There was little or none of that here. Jon Rahm reckoned there were nine or ten holes here that were bloody difficult, but that the rest made up for it by being gettable.
Hard, and slow, but fair.
Echavarria, like Scottie Scheffler, spoke of how hard it was to control shots when moisture was intervening between ball and club, and especially the drivers. What? Don't go with the driver? Okay, and leave a wet, long-iron approach? Damned if they did… Add to all that those 57 cleverly-positioned and punishing bunkers, and the rough. Padraig Harrington hit his drive on the 10th into what he thought was mild enough trouble and was left astonished to discover that it couldn't be found.
Bryson DeChambeau found only fresh air in trying to escape from some thick stuff up against a steep ridge on the fourth hole. A two-time major champion, he moved it maybe eight feet with his second on the way to a double bogey and a 78. Humbling.
Only a fifth of the 156 players finished the day under par, but Jacob Skov Olesen and Harris English did make it to five-under before losing a shot and claiming an overnight tie for the lead. They have Haotong Li, Matt Fitzpatrick and Christiaan Bezuidenhout for company.
Shane Lowry was sitting 16th when he wrapped up a one-under par 70 in the mid-afternoon. He drifted a little further out as the day grew legs. Champion golfer here at Royal Portrush in 2019, he knew then that his score made for a very solid and acceptable start.
'We're going to get challenging conditions over the next few days,' he warned. 'Like today, for example, the 11th hole was like the worst hole to get the weather we got in. We all really struggled, and I fortunately made a great putt for par.
'I think there's going to be certain times in the tournament where that's going to happen, and you just need to kind of put your head down and battle through it and see where it leaves you.'
For Lowry, it wasn't just the weather and the course that made his card so good. There was pressure on because of '19, and because this is an Open on the island of Ireland. He felt it on the first tee, and when standing over a tricky five-footer after a huge reception on 18.
'I would put that up there with the first tee at the Ryder Cup,' he said of that first swing. 'I was fighting with that all morning this morning. It's going to be all right for the rest of the week. I just wanted to get my tournament under way.
'I want so much to do well in this tournament. I want so much to give myself a chance on Sunday. You can't do that without hitting a good first tee shot. I knew I needed to do that. We all know the dangers that first hole can throw at you, so I was happy to get under way.'
The next three days are poised perfectly. Deliciously.
Jon Rahm matched Lowry with a grinding 70, Fitzpatrick's return towards the form that won him a US Open was franked by the 67 that leaves him sharing real estate at the top, Justin Rose and Li went around with ne'er a bogey to be seen.
Rory McIlroy signed for 70 despite finding just two fairways, Scottie Scheffler carded a 68 after managing just one more. Playing alongside Lowry, the world number one had to contend with the worst of the day's conditions, but made it all look so straightforward.
Even Lowry said so.
'Even when you look at him and it looks like he's hitting a bad shot it doesn't go in a bad spot.'
A neat trick on a day and a course like this.