Irishman Shane Lawrie knows something about playing in rain, wind and cold weather.
Still, even he lost feeling in his hand during the first round of the WM Phoenix Open on Thursday.
“It was very cold. My hands were cold for the first time in a while,” Rory explained. “It’s one of those things where you have to warm up your hand somehow every time you shoot because you lose feeling in your hand.”
During the morning wave that Lowry played in, temperatures in Scottsdale never rose above 50 degrees. A cold front then moved through the Phoenix area, causing temperatures to rise. Torrential rain As a result, there was a delay of 3 hours and 30 minutes.
“You get through it. It’s one of those things that the older you get, the more you realize you can’t let it affect you, just go in the house and relax,” Laurie said.
“I’m lucky. I have a few friends here this week. We went out to my car in the parking lot and hung out there for about two hours trying to keep warm because it was so cold. So… You will find out as the months go by.”
Despite the conditions, Lowry fought hard to shoot one of the lower rounds of the day. The County Offaly native signed with a four-under 67, including six birdies on his front nine.
Starting from the 10th tee, Lowry took the lead at 5 under and made it to the front nine.
“It was going pretty well before the delay. But it got really bad towards the end and it was pretty tough,” Lowry said.
He bogeyed the difficult par-4 second hole and made pars on the other eight holes. The 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year is trailing Sahit Segala, who posted an astonishing 6-under 65, by two strokes.
“We came back, the wind wasn’t blowing as hard, but the ball wasn’t going anywhere and it was cold and kind of tough,” Lowry added.
“I was happy to make some really great saves and I’m pretty happy with my work that day.”
Unlike half the field, Lowry completed the first round.
The PGA Tour resumed play at TPC Scottsdale at 4:02 p.m. local time, but suspended play again at 6:10 p.m. in Montana due to darkness. Most of the second wave he failed to complete 9 holes.
Nevertheless, when play stopped, Lowry’s ball came to rest in the rough to the left of the 6th fairway. But conditions were so bad at the time that Lowry couldn’t understand why people kept monitoring his group.
“There’s a group of young people on the sixth hole. It was raining and I said, ‘What are you all doing here?’ Of course, you can find the nearest bar and do something else,” said Laurie.
“But the rain was coming down from the side, and they were standing there watching us hit 160 yards with a 6-iron. We were like, ‘We better go home, right?’ . Honestly, it was terrible. It was as difficult as I can remember for a while. ”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
