4 hours Ago By Vincent Whelan
WENDY Lowry amusingly poked fun at Shane and his pal Rory McIlroy hitting holes-in-one within hours of each other. First up at Pebble Beach was Rory who hit a perfect tee shot on the 15th. That was swiftly imitated by Lowry on the 7th.
Somewhat surprisingly, that was only the third ace of McIlroy's career with Lowry now also sitting on that same all-time total. Both men were naturally in buoyant mood after completing their opening rounds on Thursday. On Twitter, Shane shared fan footage of his highlight with the caption: "These lads enjoyed my hole-in-one more than me!" Meanwhile the four-time major winner posted a photo of a couple of complimentary beers that they were treated to by tournament organisers.
The $20m 'Signature' tournament is the Down native's first start of the American Tour's season. 45 of the top 50 players in the world are in action at the event which is played over two courses. The iconic Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill make up the tracks for the tournament which has no cut.
Prior to his maiden PGA Tour ace, the world number three bagged a hole-in-one at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in 2015 on the DP World Tour. The winner of the second 'Signature' event of the season will bag $3.8m from the $20m purse.
Overall, Russell Henley led the way after day one on eight-under. The parallels in Lowry and McIlroy's play across the day extended to their scores as they're in a tie for 8th having both carded six-under. Elsewhere, Brandon Robinson-Thompson fell just short of only the second 59 in DP World Tour history.
The 32-year-old Englishman hit two eagles and three birdies on the front nine of the Bahrain Championship. A further birdie flurry left him needing one more at the last but he dropped his only shot of the day for an 11-under-par 61, still a course record..
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