Shane Lowry back in action with level par 70 at Honda Classic

Shane Lowry got back to work on the PGA Tour for the first time this year with a gritty opening round of level par 70 – two birdies, two bogeys to go with 14 pars - in the Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach, Florida, where American Kurt Kitayama claimed the first round with a 64.

Prior to the tournament, Lowry had explained why he'd played in the recent Saudi International on the Asian Tour and dispelled rumours that he'd been among those players to sign up for the purported breakaway Saudi Golf League.

"It didn't really sit well with me," said Lowry of playing the event in Saudi Arabia. "I signed a deal after The Open in 2019 to play three years in a row when the Saudi International was a European Tour event. It just so happens that deal ran into this year, and I had to play this year as well, so that's the reason I was there."

It was after he saw his name being bandied about as one of those players to sign up for the controversial breakaway tour being touted by Greg Norman that Lowry approached the PGA Tour to dispel such rumours.

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Shane Lowry: ‘I never really said anything because no one has ever asked me’

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"The way I see it, the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour have given me and my family a life I never thought I would have and I am grateful for. I am solely focused on trying to win more PGA Tour events, more DP World Tour and more Majors. I want to play in the next Ryder Cup and win that back and do stuff like that, so that's where I am at in my career and that's it really. I am committed to Europe and the PGA Tour."

Lowry rolled up his sleeves to sign for an opening round 70 on a course with a feared reputation as one of the toughest on the PGA Tour, including the notorious Bear Trap (the sequence of holes from the 15th to the 17th).

Starting on the 10th, Lowry indeed suffered his first bogey on the Par 3 17th where he put his tee shot into a greenside bunker but responded with a birdie on the Par 5 18th. A wild drive down the left of the third resulted in a bogey six but, again, he managed to get the shot back with a birdie on the eighth, holing from 12 feet.

Two-time Honda Classic winner Pádraig Harrington struggled to an opening round of 73 for three over par, which included a double bogey six at the ninth – his final hole.

Seven birdies and just one bogey were enough for Kitayama to get to six under, leading by one from Rory Sabbatini, Daniel Berger and Chris Kirk.

McKibbin and Purcell

In the Jonsson Workwear Open in Durban – a co-sanctioned event on the Challenge Tour and the Sunshine Tour – South African JC Ritchie, a winner in Cape Town last week, continued his good form to claim the first-round lead with a nine-under-par 61.

"It was probably the best ball striking day I've had in my life. I don't remember ever having that control on a golf course. That was really nice. And to have a hole-in-one on my birthday was pretty awesome. Today was just really special," said Ritchie, who had an ace on the 213 yards Par 3 second hole at Mount Edgecombe.

Teenager Tom McKibbin, also playing at Mount Edgecombe, again headed the Irish challenge with an opening round 65 to lie in tied-eighth place while John Murphy and Robin Dawson (playing at Durban Country Club) opened with one-under 71s.

On the Alps Tour, Dubliner Conor Purcell closed with a 68 for a 54-holes total of 12-under 204 to finish runner-up, two strokes adrift of Italy's Stefano Mazzoli in the Ein Bay Open in Suez, Egypt, the first tournament of the developmental tour's season.