LOWRY AND MCILROY SAFELY INTO THE WEEKEND AT THE OPEN
Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy during The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. (Photo: Stuart Franklin/R&A/Getty)
By Paul Gallagher
By mid-afternoon it looks like only Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy will make it into the weekend of The 154th Open Championship at Royal Birkdale where seven Irish hopefuls started the week.
Lowry has tapped into some of the form that brought his glory at the 2019 Open in front of home crowds at Royal Portrush and will hope his week continues to trend in the right direction. The Offaly man is the leading Irishman on three-under after today’s 68 got him to three-under.
“I played nice. I was in control of myself and my game. I gave myself a lot of chances,” said Lowry after this round. “I felt a couple of times at the end I was out of position. But, yeah, I felt very in control the whole day.”
When asked if he is here wo win, Lowry was frank in his response. “Why would I come here if I didn't want to win? Yeah, like obviously, you know, you say a good week would go a long way, but who cares about where I finish in the FedExCup, or when I'm 75 years of age and I'm sitting there, you're not going to say, oh, in 2026, you finished 25th in the FedExCup; well done.
“I'm here to win the tournament. I'm here to compete at this level, and I'm here to put myself into contention. I feel like I've done that somewhat. I'm quite a few back, but I feel like I'm in a good position heading into the weekend.”
Lowry is also showing patience on the treacherous Lancashire links that is playing fast and hard in the current heatwave. “I'm in control of what I'm doing, where I'm hitting the ball. I feel like I'm making right decisions.
“I’ve just been calculated in what I'm doing out there, just been in control of everything around my game and myself at the minute.
“I hope it stays there for the next two days because I really do feel like I'm playing really well, and I really do feel like if I get a run of rolling a few putts in in a row, I can do well this weekend, but it remains to be seen.
“I wouldn't say I'm very comfortable because it's Birkdale and there's bunkers everywhere, and there's trouble everywhere.
“To be honest, with my game, I felt like this for a lot of this year, and then obviously my results don't show it. Yeah, it's just a strange old game we play, isn't it? The last few months have been probably, you would say, a bit of a speed bump in my career where your career is full of ups and downs.”
As for McIlroy, he made it safely into the weekend with his second round 67 to get to one-under.
“It was a little better. Yeah, I felt like I had momentum coming off the end of the front nine there with the two birdies on 8 and 9. I felt like I stole a little bit on the back,” said McIlroy.
“Look, I think the main objective today was to be here for the weekend, which I am. I felt like I left a couple out there. Then you look at the board, and you see a couple of 62s, and you feel like you could have done a bit better.
McIlroy struggled with the greens in his opening round and did some work with Brad Faxon before today’s round.
“We were more just talking through the process and being committed and trusting. I hit a couple of putts yesterday, and I felt like I hit good putts and they did something completely different to what I saw in the read, and I think that's a little unnerving.
“So, it's just a matter of trying to trust and commit to what you're seeing. Because of that yesterday, I got a little bit unsure over some putts, but I feel like I did a better job of it today.”
At two-over, Tom McKibbin needs to birdie a couple of his closing holes to be around for the weekend, while Fota Island Amateur David Howard was two-under through five to be on the same mark as McKibbin as he aims for a dream weekend berth at The Open.
Stuart Grehan has the weekend off despite shooting 69 today, but at six-over The Amateur champion is too far back. Former Champions, Darren Clarke and Pádraig Harrington, both have the weekend off after finishing seven and nine-over respectively.
Australia’s Lucas Herbert is the man of the moment after the Australian equalled the low round with his 62 to move into the current lead on eight-under, two ahead of first round leader Jackson Suber (69) and Cameron Young (67).