The smile was very much back on Shane Lowry’s face, to the point where he was jesting with Ben Griffin as both players departed the 18th green after each producing strong opening rounds in the $20 million Memorial Tournament hosted by Jack Nicklaus at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
“Keep it going, things will turn around for you pretty soon,” quipped Lowry to Griffin, the American who came into the event with two wins in his last five outings including a victory in last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial.
In-form Griffin posted a first round of seven-under-par 65 to assume the clubhouse lead in his bid to keep his winning streak going, but Lowry too manoeuvred his way into contention with a three-under-par 69 that was highlighted by an eagle three on the par 5 where he hit a stunning 272 yards approach shot to inside four feet.
Lowry’s round featured an eagle, three birdies and two bogeys (both of which came on par 5s) and, for a player with two runners-up finishes on tour this season, to Rory McIlroy in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am and to Sepp Straka in the Truist, the opening round enabled him to eye the potential for a bounce-back win after missing the cut in the US PGA Championship.
“You miss a shot and you’re going probably going to make bogey. You’re going to miss some shots when you’re out there playing 18 holes. I missed two fairways on the par 5s and made bogeys on both without hitting it in the water. It’s just two horrendous lies and before you know it you’re making bogey on what you feel like is an easy hole,” said Lowry, adding:
“There’s no holes where you feel like you can get away with one. You need to hit good shots.”
For the most part, Lowry did just that in finding 10 of 14 fairways off the tee – albeit paying a heavy priced for finding the rough on the 11th and 15th coming home – while also hitting 15 of 18 greens in regulation.
While Lowry could joke with Griffin on finishing the round, he admitted: “It was good. We bounced off each other, we all played really nicely, and it’s nice when you get a good group like that. My 3-under doesn’t look that great beside his 7-under, but 3-under is a good score out there on this course, it’s pretty difficult.”
Griffin finished with three birdies to move into the lead after a round which included an eagle (also on the seventh), seven birdies and two back-to-back bogeys on the 11th and 12th where he found water hazards on each.
“I can’t remember the last time I birdied the last three holes of a tournament. I mean, the birdies on 16 and 17, those are some of the hardest holes out here. I stayed aggressive on those holes, attacked, never really was trying to play any sort of conservative shots, was just trying to keep the pedal down, and you got to take advantage of that on days like today where putts are dropping,” said Griffin, who was two clear of Collin Morikawa when he finished.
