Shane Lowry hoping for ‘mad stuff’ to happen at Masters after his ‘toughest two days of golf’

Shane Lowry looked like he’d just gone 12 rounds with Marvin Hagler rather than two with majestic Augusta National.

But he was still proud to grind out a second-round 74 in the toughest conditions he’s ever faced to make the cut with ease in the Masters.

The 2019 Open champion was gutted to follow a par at the 17th with a three-putt bogey at the last to finally complete an opening 73 that did little justice to his play on day one.

The golfing gods decided he would go on to sandwich a birdie at the second between a pair of three-putt bogeys at the first and third.

But he dug deep in winds gusting to 30mph and after going bogey-birdie-bogey at the seventh, eighth and ninth to turn in two-over, he saved two great pars at the 10th and 11th and rebounded from another dropped shot at the 12th to play his last six holes in one-under for his 74.

It wasn’t always pretty but he’s safely through on three-over and hoping he can still make a weekend charge.

“Yeah, it was tough, the two days,” Lowry said. “Shooting one-over how I played yesterday was pretty disappointing, and then I was behind the black ball after a few holes today.

“I battled well. I’m proud of myself for playing the last six holes in one-under to make the cut and hopefully, I can go out there and have a decent weekend.”

With the wind swirling viciously in the pines, club selection was a lottery and Lowry admitted the conditions made the world’s best look foolish.

“It’s an absolute battle,” he said. “Like (caddie) Darren (Reynolds) said, if you’re talking in boxing terms, walking up 18, he said, you’d think it was round 12 today, not round two. It was tough.

“It’s honestly a lot of guesswork, a lot of luck involved. The wind is all over the place. I’ve never seen it like this. That was probably the toughest two days of golf that I’ve played. I’ll sleep well tonight.”

He resumed his first round on the 17th in the cool morning winds at 7.50am at level-par, but while he made a nice chip-and-putt par at the treacherous 17th, his three-putt at the 18th was a blow.

“It’s hard to pick a wind and get it right if we were playing around a normal golf course, but you’re playing around Augusta National, where you have to be so precise, as well,” he said.

“You can be made to look like an idiot out there today by not doing too much wrong.”

The key to his round came at the 10th, where he was bunkered but rolled in a 10-footer for par after initially backing off due to the wind.

“Yeah, huge,” said Lowry, who had to make another 10-footer for par at the next. “The wind is just blowing. I can’t imagine what it was doing to poor Akshay (Bhatia, 9 st 2lbs). It was blowing me around the place. He nearly got blown away!

“I actually said to myself going down 10, if I can par the next three holes, I’ll give myself a couple of chances on the way in.

“I bogeyed 12 but then gave myself a few chances on the way in, and I’m very happy the way I played when I needed to.”

Lowry’s putting clearly let him down but he knows he is playing well enough to get back to level-par or better and potentially make a run, conditions depending.

“To be honest, the hardest part out there is putting, I find anyway,” he said. “I’ve got 10 feet down the hill on 18, one of the easiest putts you can get… I still couldn’t manage to hit a good putt and hole it. It’s just hard.”

He added: “I played all the golf. I played good enough golf to be nearly on the leaderboard or on the leaderboard the last two days. It’s just my scoring.

“I’ll go out there and try and break 70 and try to have the best week you possibly can. I have 27 holes to get myself into position to maybe make a run at it on Sunday.

“Stranger things have happened around here. Mad stuff has happened.”

At the top of the leaderboard, Max Homa followed an opening 67 with a 71 to lead by two shots in the clubhouse from Dane Nicolai Hojgaard (67-73) on six-under.

As for Tiger Woods, he completed a 73 in the morning before memorably adding a 72 in the afternoon to break Fred Couples’ record and make the cut for the 24th time in a row on one-over.

Get ahead of the day with the morning headlines at 7.30am and Fionnán Sheahan’s exclusive take on the day’s news every afternoon, with our free daily newsletter.