Shane Lowry's opening 5-under 66 may have been lower, but his second-round 69 might be the better effort. Reaching 7 under at the 2024 Open Championship, the Irishman grabbed the solo lead at Royal Troon and now firmly stands as the man to beat heading into the weekend in Scotland.
"It was good. I felt like, I went out there, I was in control of my ball, did all the right things for a lot of the round," Lowry said. "Then when I got in a bit of trouble, I feel like I really finished the round well.
"I'm pretty happy with the day. To be leading this tournament after two days, it's why you come here. It's why we're here. Yeah, I'll sit back and watch a bit of golf in the afternoon and see where it leaves me come the end of the day and get out there tomorrow. The job tomorrow as well is to try to put myself in a position to win this tournament on Sunday, and that's what I'll try and do."
Lowry holds the second 36-hole lead in his major career; the other occurrence came in 2019 when he went on to raise the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush. If the Irish standout is going to do the same at Royal Troon, he will return to Northern Ireland next year as a rare double defender -- the last man to win at Portrush, and simultaneously, the last man to hoist the Claret Jug.
Plenty of golf separates Lowry from the winner's circle, but Friday's 11th hole could indicate how the Irishman will react over the weekend should he face adversity again.
Hitting his second shot into a gorse bush, Lowry dropped a provisional at his feet and struck his presumed fourth shot. Settling close to the pin, Lowry's approach looked to be enough to get him with minimal damage done. However, as he was walking toward the green, he was made aware that his original golf ball was found.
Having to go through the process of identifying his golf ball, weighing his options and taking an unplayable lie, Lowry went onto make double bogey. He remained cool, calm and collected, and soon, he got those strokes back with birdies on Nos. 16 and 18 to close out his round.
Lowry's temperament will need to remain steady entering Moving Day as this week's surprise contender, Daniel Brown, does not appear to be going anywhere quite yet. The 18-hole leader and a more acclaimed fellow Englishman, Justin Rose, will pose as Lowry's closest competitors at 5 under just ahead of modern heavyweights like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and Jon Rahm.
"I have felt quite calm and composed the last couple of days. I've felt really in my comfort zone," Lowry said. "Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how things have gone."
2024 Open Championship leaderboard, Round 2
1. Shane Lowry (-7): If Thursday was defined by his putting, Friday was defined by his ball striking. Lowry hit nine fairways, 15 greens in regulation and led the field in strokes gained approach. Making this even more impressive is that Lowry's second into the gorse bush on No. 11 resulted in losing 1.30 strokes on approach.
T2. Justin Rose, Daniel Brown (-5): Two English qualifiers are Lowry's closet competitors through 36 holes, and they couldn't be more different. A bogey on the par-5 4th could have been the beginning of the end for Brown, but he stood strong. Carding two birdies and two bogeys the rest of his way in, the first-time major participant heads into the weekend only two off the pace and as a member of the final pairing on Saturday. Brown could become the first player since Keegan Bradley at the 2011 PGA Championship to win in his first major.
Meanwhile, the wily veteran Rose is the only player from the morning-afternoon wave to be under par midway through the championship; he did so in fabulous fashion clipping the scoring average by eight strokes Friday afternoon. Steady off the tee while impressive with his shot-making skills and iron play, Rose was a few lip outs away from inching even closer to the lead. He instead fired a 68 thanks to a long-distance connection on the last hole. The 44-year-old has made only one bogey all week.
"We're probably much more aligned than we are different in the sense of, go out there tomorrow, the mentality to do well is going to be to enjoy it, to be as free as you can with it, to give yourself the best opportunity to play well, to sort of embrace the fun part of it and the childhood dream part of it," Rose said. "From that point of view, I think it's pretty similar."
T4. Scottie Scheffler, Billy Horschel, Dean Burmester (-2): If it seems like he has not done anything extraordinary, it's because Scheffler actually has not. Carding back-to-back 70s, the world No. 1 is officially lurking for his third career major championship. He didn't hit the ball as well on Friday, but the putter more than made up for it highlighted by a 35-foot birdie on No. 14. "Well, I would have liked to be leading, but it's just one of those deals," Scheffler said. "I've played two solid rounds, and it put me five shots back, and I'll continue to try to execute and just continue to try to hit good shots and hit good putts out there."
T7. Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Jason Day, Corey Conners (-1): Schauffele was able to effectively navigate Royal Troon on Friday even without his best stuff to keep him in this tournament. Alongside him was his good friend, Cantlay, who did find his quality in Round 2. Cantlay was one of six players to shoot 68 on Friday as he ranked fourth in strokes gained tee to green and was enough to position him in weekend contention for the second straight major championship.
"I played well at the U.S. Open, played well at Travelers," Cantlay said. "I feel like my game is in a good spot. I think anytime you get into contention, play well, give yourself a chance, it kind of builds on itself and you can draw on those memories going forward in other big events."
T11. Joaquin Niemann, Matthew Jordan (E): The Chilean pushed the early pace in the afternoon hours with a couple birdies in his first four holes. Giving one back, Niemann arrived at the par-3 8th in red figures. He left moments later 4 over for the championship after finding three different greenside bunkers and carding an eight. Niemann battled back with vigor with four birdies in his next 10 holes to give himself weekend hope.
T13. Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa, Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Mackenzie Hughes (+1): One bad swing was the difference between Koepka's second round being an under-par effort rather than over par like it was. Needing to take an unplayable on the par-5 6th, the five-time major champion carded a double bogey on one of the few front-nine scoring opportunities. He carded 12 straight pars from there to give himself an outside chance, albeit a lot will have to do with how Lowry plays from here on out.
T19. Alex Noren, Russell Henley, Matthieu Pavon, Sepp Straka and five others (+2)
T27. Jordan Spieth, Padraig Harrington, Sam Burns and eight others (+3)
T38. Brian Harman, Cameron Young, Justin Thomas and 11 others (+4)
T52. Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Phil Mickelson, Robert MacIntyre and 12 others (+5)
T68. Max Homa, Matt Fitzpatrick, Rickie Fowler, Sungjae Im and nine others (+6)
Rick Gehman, Greg DuCharme and Kyle Porter recap a brutal day on Friday at the 2024 Open Championship. Follow & listen to The First Cut onApple PodcastsandSpotify.
