Shane Lowry posted an impressive opening round of 70 at The Masters on Thursday.
Lowry is currently sitting three shots adrift of the first-round leaders Sam Burns and defending champion Rory McIlroy.
The 39-year-old Irishman loves playing at Augusta National and he was right in the mix to win The Masters last year before a really poor finish to his third round.
Lowry got off to a fine start at Augusta National on Thursday, and was two-under-par after three holes before a double bogey on the fourth hole halted his progress.
However, a fine par save on seven kickstarted his round once again, and an eagle on the 13th hole helped him card a solid opening round of 70 at The Masters.
Lowry warmed up for The Masters by taking an early scouting trip to Augusta National a couple of weeks ago.
That seems to have paid dividends, with the 2019 Open Champion well placed on the leaderboard after 18 holes of the tournament.
Shane Lowry surprised by decision Masters organisers made at Augusta
Lowry almost certainly would not have shot two-under-par had he not holed a lengthy putt to salvage a four on the seventh hole on Thursday.
And the Irishman told reporters after his round how surprised he was to see the pin located on such a severe slope on the seventh green.
“Yeah, it was pretty good. I’m pretty happy. Obviously I got off to a great start, and I was feeling great,“ Lowry said.
“Then obviously I had a mishap on the fourth, and I thought I did a great job of kicking on from there.
“I know I bogeyed six, but I made a great par save on seven and birdied eight and nine. That kind of really got me going, and I really felt like I plotted my way around the course nicely today.
“It’s funny. I was here last Monday and Tuesday. On both days it was the same pin on seven. I was playing with Mr. Carr here beside us.
I knew the read on the hole perfectly because I had it a couple of days. To be honest, I didn’t think they would use the pin in the tournament just on such a slope.
“Yeah, I rolled that one in nicely, and that kind of gave me a little bit of a kick-start for the rest of my round.“
Shane Lowry comments on hole-out on 13 at Augusta National
Lowry was asked whether he expected his ball to find the bottom of the cup after he hit his shot into the green on 13.
“To be honest, it’s been a number that I’m not overly comfortable with or I haven’t been, and I did work on it a lot over the last two weeks. It was nice to pull it off,“ the Irishman admitted.
“I knew when it was in the air, it was really good, but I knew it was going to go close, but it was nice to see it go in.
“It kind of gave me a little jump for the rest of the round. I don’t feel like I drove it very well on the way in, so I’d like to clean that up for tomorrow, but other than that, it was pretty nice.“
He will surely be very content with his round of 70 on day one at Augusta National.
Lowry will be hoping for more of the same throughout the rest of the week at The Masters.
With the course playing as challenging as it is right now, who knows – maybe single digits under par will win the tournament.
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