TROON, Scotland — Shane Lowry used a resilient second-round performance on Friday at Royal Troon to help him win his second British Open title.
Starting the day one stroke behind the leader, Lawrie shot a two-under 69 to finish at seven under par and take the lead by two strokes over first-round leader Daniel Brown as the afternoon group teed off for the second round.
The 37-year-old, who won the Open at Portrush in 2019, was cruising through the 10 holes of the round at two under but his scores dropped off as he reached the tricky par-four 11th hole.
“I was controlling the ball and doing all the right things for most of the round and then I got into a little bit of trouble,” Lawrie said of hooking his second shot into the gorse on the 11th hole.
That put him back at five under after a double bogey, but he bounced back with a birdie on the par-five 16th hole and another on the 18th to finish the final hole.
“I felt like I finished a really good round,” Lawrie said. “I’m really happy with today. To be in the lead of this tournament after two days is what we came here for and why we’re here.”
“I’m going to sit back and watch a little bit of golf this afternoon, see how I am at the end of the day and then I’ll go out there tomorrow. My job tomorrow is to put myself in position to win this tournament on Sunday and that’s what I’m going to work for.”
Ironically, Lawrie’s troubles on the 11th hole came after he hit his tee shot, the most difficult shot on the hole, on the railroad tracks just a few yards to the right of the hole. His tee shot ended up in the rough on the right and his second shot landed far left in the brush.
“I did the hard part. I hit the driver where I could, which of course is hard on that hole,” Lawrie said. “Right after I hit the shot I got a little distracted to the right and lost my train of thought a little bit. I was scared to go right so I just hooked the club and it went left.”
“Then I hit a great tentative shot and the umpire asked me as I went down, ‘Did you want to find the first ball?’ and I said ‘No’ and I thought that was OK. And then when we got there, someone had found the ball.”
“So, it seems like we have to find it or go and check on it, but if we had declared it lost before we found it, I don’t think we would have had to go and check on it. Throughout the whole 20-minute process of dropping it, seeing where we could drop it, I felt like I was very calm, collected and really knew I was doing the right thing.”
“To be honest, I was happy to finish with six. It’s not like it wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.”
Lawrie called the 12th hole the “key” to the round because it is a “very difficult hole playing against the wind.”
“I hit my best shots of the week with my driver and 4-iron and hit it to about 30 feet for par,” he said. “It kind of felt like the wind was coming down from the left from there so it was pretty tough to play, but I felt like I could create an opportunity down the middle and I did.”
Lawrie was praised for keeping a cool head in windy conditions.
“When I get into a situation like this, I know I can do it, I can handle it,” he said. “There’s a certain technique to it. It’s pretty hard to stand there at 190 yards and hit a 4-iron as low as you can. It’s pretty hard to tell yourself that.”
Lawrie said time spent at home in Ireland playing links golf with mates had helped him in the lead up to this week.
“I think playing in Ireland and coming here a few weeks ago and preparing, all of that has helped,” he said. “I’ve just been feeling really calm and collected the last few days, I really feel like I’m in my comfort zone, so yeah, I’m really happy with how things have worked out.”
Brown, who led at 6 under after 36 holes, dropped just one stroke on Friday and hung on to finish at 5 under overall.
The 29-year-old journeyman had missed the cut in seven of his previous eight appearances on the DP World Tour but entered this week’s tournament after sinking a 20-foot putt on the final hole of the 36-hole qualifying period to secure a spot.
