Ireland’s Shane Lowry, the 2019 British Open champion, was watching on television as Rory McIlroy played from a beach during one of the televised practice rounds earlier this week, but didn’t know where he was on the course.
On Friday, Lowry found out after he drove a ball well right on the difficult par-5 16th hole, his ball finishing up against a beach fence.
“I obviously knew the sea was out there that side, but I didn’t know what was out there,” Lowry said. “Look, I got very lucky there because where I hit my provisional wasn’t very good, either. It could have been anything. I got lucky and managed to make an unbelievable par.”
He dropped, got a ball back in play 83 yards down the fairway, hit his third shot short of the gaping left-side bunker, then got up and down for down 5.
“It was one of those where when I found my ball and was able to get relief and got it back in play, it was like make a 6. A 6 doesn’t kill you. On this course if your mistakes are bogeys, you’ll do okay, because you will give yourself a few chances. But I just wanted to try and make bogey or par and move on to the next, and I managed -- I did.”
Lowry shot 71 and enters the weekend at 1-under 143.
