Shane Lowry did his Open hopes no favours after carding a six-over-par 77 in the third round on Saturday, and the Irishman complained about the set up of the course in testing conditions
Shane Lowry was less than impressed with the set-up of Royal Troon on Saturday, after the Irishman let his Open Championship lead slip in testing conditions in round three.
Lowry headed into the third round as the man to catch, holding a two-shot lead over Dan Brown and Justin Rose having played the first half of the championship in seven-under-par. Saturday however proved a different test, as the wind and rain caused havoc for the late starters.
Lowry in particular struggled to adapt, carding a six-over 77 to leave him at one-over for the week, three behind leader Horschel. In particular, Royal Troon bared its teeth on the testing back nine.
With the wind howling into the players on the way back in, Lowry was forced to hit driver-driver at the 15th, going on to make bogey at the brutal par-four which measured over 500-yards. The 17th proved an even tougher test, with the strong wind forcing Lowry to hit driver at the par-three.
Clearly unimpressed with the choice of tee boxes amid the conditions, Lowry said in the aftermath: “Look, I don’t really know what to say. It was a grind. It wasn’t much fun. Driver, driver into 15. 16 playing ridiculously long. Driver into 17. Then you’re standing on the 18th tee wondering if you can actually hit the fairway, if you can reach the fairway, and it’s 230-yards to the fairway.
“Bear in mind my driver pitched about 220-yards on the 17th hole. So, yeah, it’s not much fun out there. It’s obviously very difficult. But you’d have to question why there wasn’t a couple of tees put forward today, to be honest. I think 15 and 17 – like 15 is 500-yards playing into that wind.
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