Shane Lowry cruised alongside within the slipstream of a red-hot Ben Griffin and moved into US Open mode by carding a powerful opening 69 within the $20 million Memorial Event in Ohio.
As Griffin adopted his first particular person PGA Tour win in final week’s Charles Schwab Problem with a seven-under 65 to set the early goal at Muirfield Village, the Offaly man produced the sort of ball-striking brilliance he’ll want at fearsome Oakmont in Pittsburgh in two weeks.
Scoring
Whereas he bogeyed two back-nine par-fives after tangling with the punishing tough, Lowry was nonetheless beaming afterwards as he made an eagle and three birdies, lacking simply 4 fairways and solely three greens in regulation to finish the day tied for fourth.
“I advised him once we completed, ‘Preserve it going; issues will flip round for you fairly quickly’,” Lowry joked of Griffin, who adopted his debut win within the Zurich Traditional of New Orleans with Andrew Novak in April with a one-shot victory at Colonial Nation Membership on Sunday.
“He just about holed every little thing he checked out at this time. It was good. We bounced off one another, all of us performed actually properly, and it is good if you get a superb group like that.
“My three-under would not look that nice beside his seven-under, however three-under is an efficient rating on the market on this course. It is fairly tough.”
Lowry was particularly happy together with his driving, which allowed him to guide the sector for iron play.
“I hit the ball in play lots at this time, I hit loads of fairways, which allowed me to hit loads of greens, so I took benefit of some good driving at this time,” stated the world quantity 14, who will probably be extremely fancied at Oakmont, the place he had a four-shot lead heading into the ultimate spherical in 2016 earlier than ending joint second behind Dustin Johnson.
He birdied the second and eagled the seventh because of a superb 273-yard method to 4 ft, then adopted bogey sixes on the eleventh and fifteenth with birdies on the thirteenth and sixteenth.
“You miss a shot and also you’re most likely going to make bogey,” added Lowry, who’s “trying ahead to the problem” of Oakmont.
“There are simply no gimmes on the market. There aren’t any holes the place you’re feeling like you will get away with one. You’ll want to hit good photographs.”
Griffin is likely to be operating low on vitality after his win in Texas, however he loved taking part in with Lowry.
“That was my first time taking part in with Shane, however I had a sense me and his personalities would sort of match up, and we had an superior time,” he stated after ending with three successive birdies because of a chip-in on the 18th.
He led by two strokes from Collin Morikawa and by three from Max Homa as Lowry’s 69 left him joint fourth with US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and Canada’s Nick Taylor.
Defending champion and world primary Scottie Scheffler discovered simply six fairways however nonetheless carded a two-under 70 together with his B recreation to share seventh with Novak, Akshay Bhatia and Si Woo Kim.
“I want to provide myself some extra appears to be like,” Scheffler stated. “I felt like I used to be out of the green a bit an excessive amount of at this time. I used to be in a position to hit an honest quantity of greens, simply giving myself a couple of extra high quality appears to be like, I believe, could be a giant distinction.”
In Salzburg, Conor Purcell’s two underneath 68 left him joint twenty first, simply 5 photographs behind Germany’s Marcel Schneider within the DP World Tour’s Austrian Alpine Open.
On the Problem de Cadiz, Dermot McElroy and Max Kennedy had been joint tenth, 5 photographs behind Spain’s Quim Vidal, after opening with two underneath 70s.
In the meantime, Co Louth’s Gerard Dunne will probably be seeking to construct on his tie for fourth within the Flogas Irish Novice Open at Seapoint when he tees it up within the Pharmaher Healthcare-sponsored East of Eire Championship at Baltray at this time.
