The 152nd British Open already has a serious contender for the claret jug: the Irishman Shane Lowry, 37 years old, currently number 33 in the world ranking, has set out directly towards what would be the second major of his professional career.
Lowry, an Irish golfer with a rotund figure, 1.85m and 102kg, winner of The Open Championship 2019, provisionally led this Friday the second day at the Royal Troon in Ayrshire (Scotland) with a -7 (69 strokes) after a day of strong and changing wind, which he got through with -2 after scoring five birdies.
Great start for the Irishman
Lowry took the lead on the first hole of the day with a birdie, and added four more to finish the day at -2, and a total of -7.
Sean Lowry, who had finished second on the first day, just one shot behind the leader (66, -5), Daniel Brown, after having led the leaderboard all day, took control from the first hole with the first of the five birdies he made. He repeated on the fourth, failed with a bogey on the fifth and recovered on the eighth with another birdie.
However, the Irishman, a loyal Manchester United supporter, was having a nightmare on hole 11 with a double bogey, where he was stuck on a par 4 in 6 strokes. The stumble did not deprive him of the lead, which he maintained with two final birdies (holes 16 and 18), to finish the day with a score of 69 strokes (-7 in total). The black and white socks of his Gaelic football club Clara GAA brought him luck.
Closely following him from the start of the day was the first leader of the British Open, Daniel Brown (the first player in history to sign 65 strokes in the first round in a major). The Englishman lost his composure by signing two bogeys (holes 4 and 9), so he fell two strokes behind Lowry; he was able to recover one in the second part of the course with two birdies (holes 10 and 16), but he gave up a bogey on the 17th to end the day two strokes behind the leader.
Bad start for the Basque
Jon Rahm needed to close the gap to catch up with the leaders, but he gave up a bogey on the third hole and moved 10 shots behind the leader
Jon Rahm, the great Spanish hope, world number 10, needed to rise again after a very discreet first day (+2). However, the player from Barrika started the day badly, in his afternoon shift (at 3.37pm), with a bogey on the third hole that left him at +3, 10 shots behind the Irish leader.
The Basque golfer, who has not won an individual tournament since the 2023 Augusta Masters, would have to string together birdies if he did not want to be cut off in the remaining holes of the day (from +6).
Tiger’s farewell
Woods said goodbye to the British Open with another disappointing round, +6, for a total of +14
The second day of the British Open saw the departure of the legendary Tiger Woods, who put in another disappointing performance that failed to make the cut. The American posted a card of 77 strokes (+6), for a total of +14.
The charismatic golfer, who made six bogeys and just one birdie on his final day, was sent off by the Scottish public with a mixture of applause and whistles. Tiger Woods was the player with the most titles (3; in 2000, 2005, 2006) among the 19 champions competing on the green of Royal Troon.
Source: www.lavanguardia.com
