'Was it a great day? No, but it was certainly a round that could have got away from me'

SHANE LOWRY LAMENTED a sloppy bogey on the penultimate hole of his opening round of the Masters, in which he carded a one-under round of 71 to leave him in a tie for 11th place and six shots behind leader Justin Rose. Lowry, however, bounced back from that bogey with a birdie on the final hole. “I felt on the front nine I wasn’t playing great and then I turned in two-under and felt like I played better on the back nine and didn’t really get anything out of it,” said Lowry.

“Then I was fuming walking off 17 green to be honest because I had worked so hard to stay under par and then when I hit my drive off 17, I was like, right where that pin it on 17 and where the pin is on 18 I knew there was going to be two chances on the way in if you could get your drive away. “It was just the sloppiest bogey of all time. But to birdie the last was nice and to shoot under par was nice.



“Didn’t feel great with my driver on the front nine and even 10, and then from 11 in I felt like I drove the ball great today. “Yeah, I’m pleased. Was it a great day? No.

But it was certainly a round that could have got away from me. So it was nice to be under par.” Rory McIlroy did not finish under par, collapsing at the end of his round by double-bogeying holes 15 and 17 to finish at even-par 72, seven shots behind Rose.

That undid a brilliant round to that point, with McIlroy bogey-free and four-under before trying to play a difficult chip from the back of the 15th green. He overcooked the chip and the ball bounced on a firm green before scuttling into the water. McIlroy went to the drop zone rather than attempt a repeat chip, but could ultimately only get down for a double bogey.

He then compounded the mistake with a sloppy double on 17, flying the green with a nine-iron from the second cut to leave himself with a difficult up and down. History teaches that McIlroy’s opening round has already cost him this year’s Masters: the winner across each of the past 20 years finished at least within the top 11 at the end of the first day’s play. McIlroy did not speak to the media after his round, but Sky analyst Paul McGinley suggested McIlroy lost concentration amid a long delay before taking his fateful chip on 15.

Speaking generally of the 15th green, rather than in direct reference to McIlroy’s watery grief, Lowry said, “This golf course, honestly, it’s so firm and fast. That 15th green, by Sunday I don’t know what we’re going to do to try and stop the ball on the green. It’s very, very firm.

” Ludvig Aberg, who played alongside McIlroy but finished strongly to post a four-under 68, described yesterday’s set-up as “sneaky hard”, though made birdie where McIlroy made double on 15. “The green [on 15] is new so it gets a little bit firmer than some of the other ones. I was fortunate to get my drive pretty far down there so I could hit an iron in there,” said Aberg.

“But obviously you’re playing with fire when you’re messing with that front, especially with a short pin.” Leader Rose, meanwhile, said he wants to make the most of his Indian Summer. “I’m 44,” said Rose.

“Golf is not going to get easier for me in the next five, ten years, whatever it’s going to be. So your opportunity is less going forward. So you have to make the most of it.

” No golfer has led more rounds of the Masters without winning than Rose, whose closest shave came in 2017, when he was beaten in a play-off by Sergio Garcia. “I feel like I’ve played well enough to win this tournament. I just feel like I don’t have the jacket to prove it,” continued Rose.

“Today I chunked the golf course in my mind, little mini targets, mini goals. And that’s the way I approached the day, and that’s going to be the approach tomorrow and the approach on Saturday and the approach on Sunday. “So really try to be clear out there.

Really try to make sure I didn’t hit a shot until I was fully committed. Those are the kind of things that we say often, and they are pretty boring to hear, shot-for-shot, but ultimately there is no other way of doing. It’s just how good you are doing that in the moment, and it all comes down to execution.

I know my way around this golf course. I have a straight strategy around here.” Lurking ominously for Rose are defending champion Scottie Scheffler – three back in a tie for second after a bogey-free 68 – and US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, who battled his way to a three-under 69.

“A little up and down,” said DeChambeau of his start at Augusta. “I want to steer that ship in the right direction. I need to go work on that a little bit and get comfortable for tomorrow,” said DeChambeau, who added that making bogeys on holes five and seven actually freed him up for the rest of his round.

“So making some bogeys for me probably frees me up a little bit and says, you know what, just go out and play some golf.” DeChambeau also denied he had been sent a good luck message by President Donald Trump ahead of the Masters. “ No, he did before the final round [of LIV Miami] at Doral last week, so that ended up not going so great, but it is what it is.

I always appreciate a phone call from the President, any President,” said DeChambeau. Elsewhere, amateur Jose Luis Ballester Barrio – who was paired with Scheffler and Justin Thomas in a high-profile group – may face a fierce reprimand from the members of Augusta National as he sought a different kind of relief in Rae’s Creek when playing the 13th. “I completely forgot that we had those restrooms to the left of the tee box, and then I’m like, I really need to pee.

Didn’t really know where to go, and since JT had an issue on the green, I’m like, I’m just going to sneak here in the river and probably people would not see me that much, and then they clapped for me. Probably one of the claps that I really got today real loud, so that was kind of funny.” The Spaniard says he isn’t worried about any punishment from the club.

“They saw me. It was not embarrassing at all for me. If I had to do it again, I would do it again.

” McIlroy and Lowry tee off among the early wave on Friday: McIlroy is underway alongside Ludvig Aberg and Akshay Bhatia at 2.58pm Irish time, while Lowry tees off with DeChambeau and Hideki Matsuyama at 3.15pm Irish time.

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