Lowry suffers early Ryder Cup qualifying reverse in Abu Dhabi
Shane Lowry © USGA/Chris Keane
Shane Lowry suffered an early Ryder Cup reverse when he bogeyed his last two holes to miss the cut in his defence of the $7 million Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
The Open champion (32) arrived in the Middle East with high hopes of making a charge up the qualifying table after starting the year with a runner-up finish in the Hong Kong Open to move to 16th in the World Points List.
But he left bitterly disappointed yesterday as he followed his opening 70 with an untidy 74 to miss the cut by one stroke on level par.
World number one Brooks Koepka also had what he described as "a bit of a disaster" and shot a three-over 75 to fall seven shots behind halfway leader Francesco Laporta on three-under.
The Italian earned his card by topping the Challenge Tour rankings last year and will have impressed playing partner Pádraig Harrington by firing a bogey-free, nine-under 63 to lead by a shot from former Ryder Cup players Matthew Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabrera-Bello on 10-under par.
There are still eight months to go in the race to win one of nine automatic places in Harrington's side. But Lowry it promises to be a testing period for Lowry, who knows he cannot rely on a pick as a rookie, as the captain has said repeatedly for the past 12 months.
As they passed in the players' lounge earlier this week, the Dubliner good-naturedly gave Lowry the same advice he'd given Sergio Garcia and implored the Offalyman to "make it easy for me."
Having moved to 16th in the World Points List after his Hong Kong performance, the Open champion must shrug off his second missed cut from nine starts since the qualifying period started last September.
He’s been in this situation when battling to make the top 64 in the world who qualify for the WGC Match Play or the top 50 who get into the Masters and having often found that uncomfortable, he will be leaning on his coach Neil Manchip and his team for the same sage advice that helped him return to winner’s circle 12 months ago.
Francesco Laporta. Picture: Getty Images
He was on the back foot from the moment he flew the first green with a lob wedge from 90 yards on Friday and made bogey after clumsily chipping ten feet past the hole.
While he got that shot back at the par-five second, he missed birdie chances inside 10 feet at the seventh and eighth and then dropped a shot after failing to take advantage of a huge stroke of luck at the ninth.
After seeing his tee shot caromed across a cart path towards a lake but then ricochet off the surrounding concrete kerb to safety, he dumped his approach in a bunker and failed to get up and down.
He earned some breathing room with a magnificent birdie at the 14th, where he hit a glorious, 170-yard eight-iron inside four feet from a fairway bunker.
But after failing to save par from around 10 feet at the 17th to find himself sitting the cut line, he was unlucky to take six at the last when his 277-yard approach flew right into a bunker, and he plugged his difficult third under the lip, forcing him to play his fourth with both feet outside the bunker.
Hindsight is 20-20 and Lowry way regret going for the green, or his execution of his long bunker shot. But he has no choice now but to reset mentally for the OMEGA Dubai Desert Classic next week and the subsequent trip to Saudi Arabia before he takes a break and begins his PGA Tour campaign at the the WGC Mexico Championship.
It was an equally frustrating day for Koepka, who confessed that he struggled with his timing as he followed birdies at the first two holes with a mixed bag featuring two birdies, three bogeys and two double-bogey sixes.
"Good on the first two but other than that, it was a bit of a disaster," Koepka said, refusing to blame his three-month absence with a knee injury.
"No, no," he said. "Everybody likes to make an excuse. It's just me."
Laporta birdied his last five holes in a stunning nine under par round of 63 to leap to the top of the leaderboard after round two of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA.
The Italian secured his playing rights after topping the European Challenge Tour’s Road to Mallorca Rankings, and he displayed the form that saw him win twice in three weeks last season as he went bogey-free to get to ten under par going into the weekend at the first Rolex Series event of the 2020 Race to Dubai.
Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick had set the target at nine under par - without dropping a shot in his last 36 holes - and it looked as if he would be the man to beat, before Rolex Series winner Rafa Cabrera Bello of Spain made four birdies on the back nine to join him.
But Laporta went one better, recording the lowest round of the week – and his lowest of the season so far after missed cuts in his opening two events – to overtake the Ryder Cup team mates.
Major winner Sergio Garcia and Italy’s Renato Paratore are two shots off the lead at eight under par, while World Number Six Patrick Cantlay, his fellow American Kurt Kitayama, Spaniard Adri Arnaus, 2010 Open Champion Louis Oosthuizen and former World Number One Lee Westwood are at seven under par.
Player quotes
Francesco Laporta: “I played solid all 18 holes. My putting was solid, my driver, my irons. I gave myself a lot of opportunity for birdies, and so when I had the opportunities, I took it. Every time I was putting for birdie, I made it. It was a great day.
“Feeling good. On the Challenge Tour I got more opportunity to play, so that was good. I didn't start the season good. I missed the cut in South Africa two times, and this is the third event and I'm leading, so I just want to enjoy the weekend.”
Rafa Cabrera Bello: “Very pleased obviously for posting another very good score. My game got better throughout the day, and I played good golf. I made some really, really good putts that gave me great momentum, but then I also hit some good shots that gave myself opportunities. I've been doing things good and I'm having that little bit of luck that you always need.
“I've pretty much done what I do every off-season. I had some time off, I enjoyed it and took my mind off golf, and then I practiced hard at the beginning of the year and preparing myself for these weeks. It hasn't been anything particularly different than other years.
“I played better on the back nine, primarily because those two huge putts made the biggest difference, but I mean, we've played here before. We know almost every kind of wind that can happen here, and we want it to be calm but we kind of know that in the afternoons, the wind tends to pick up, and we just have to feel lucky that on the front nine, it wasn't so windy.
Matthew Fitzpatrick: “For the first week of the year to have no bogeys, couldn't ask for a better start. Just played really disciplined golf and it's worked out well so far.
“I took it easy as soon as I finished in Dubai, slowly started to build it up and then two weeks ago really into it. Got ready for the start of the year. But when we went to play nine holes on Tuesday, I felt a little bit uncomfortable. All felt sort of new again after seven weeks off, and then as the round went on, I got into it again.
“For me every event is the same. You're here to win. It’s always a nice bonus, playing for more money and more Ryder Cup points, but you've got to go in with the same attitude.”
