SHANE Lowry’s driving prowess abandoned him, but he fought back with two birdies in his last three holes to open with a frustrating one-over 73 in the weather-delayed Players Championship in TPC Sawgrass.

The Offaly man (34) failed to give himself a chance to take advantage of preferred lies and benign conditions at the rain-softened Jacksonville venue, getting to two-under-par through seven holes before tangling too often with the rough and playing his last 10 holes in three-over to trail early leaders Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge by seven shots.

Fleetwood and Hoge shot six-under 66s on a stop-start day to lead by one stroke from Kramer Hickok, Chile's Joaquin Niemann, Keith Mitchell and India's Anirban Lahiri, while world number one Jon Rahm posted a 69

More than four hours were lost to the weather, which meant Rory McIlroy and Séamus Power only got to play three holes between them late in the day.

Scores

The Holywood star started bogey-birdie to share 68th on level par with the West Waterford man, who opened with a two-putt par at the 10th.

Torrential overnight rain delayed the start by an hour, and when play eventually got underway, a solid Lowry looked set to challenge the top of the leaderboard.

Starting on the back nine, he two-putted the par-five 11th from over 60 feet for birdie, then returned after a three-hour and 15-minute delay for thunder and lightning and birdied the par-five 16th.

He looked set to get to three-under when he rifled his tee shot to 12 feet at the 142-yard 17th. But he left his birdie putt well short, then stymied himself behind trees right at the 18th and failed to get up and down for par.

The world number 36 was still in the red heading for home, but he dropped four shots in his next six holes as he failed to find the fairways.

His first mistake was a three-putt bogey at the first, where he missed a three-footer. Unable to birdie the par-five second after driving into the rough, he was then tempted to go for the green from 110 yards from the thick rough left of the 376-yard fourth and paid the price, splashing down short in the water before eventually making a nine footer to avoid a double-bogey.

At the 474-yard fifth, he couldn't reach the green from the heavy rough and failed to save par, then came up well short of the green in two from the middle of the fairway at the 381-yard sixth and slipped to three-over for the day.

He got a shot back at the seventh, firing a 154-yard dart to three feet, then made an eight-footer at the par-five ninth to repair some of the damage. 

However, he faces a long wait to play his second round with weather delays expected again today while McIlroy and Power are likely to need until Saturday to complete 36 holes.

Co-leader Fleetwood was thrilled to make seven birdies in a 66 and show some form after falling from 10th to 49th in the world over the last 12 months.

"I haven't played well," he admitted. "I would say that, if you're not playing very well, especially out here, the standard is so, so high and it keeps getting higher, when you're off the pace and you're lacking confidence, the game becomes very, very difficult."

He's sporting a new look, having shaved his beard and admitted it wasn't just a fashion statement.

"I was in a really bad mood," he said. "It was like break some golf clubs or shave my beard, then I went for the beard."

On the DP World Tour, Jonathan Caldwell continued his return to form with a superb opening 66 in the MyGolfLife Open hosted by Pecanwood in South Africa.

Scores

McIlroy's former Walker Cup partner (37) broke through after years of trying when he won last year's Scandinavian Mixed in Sweden.

He's missed 50pc of his cuts since then, but after a run of four successive missed cuts with a tie for 65th in last week's Magical Kenya Open, he rattled in six birdies to share 20th place in Hartbeespoort.

On a low scoring day, former Ryder Cup star Ross Fisher joined local men Hennie du Plessis and Tristen Strydom and Spain's Nacho Elvira in firing a 10-under 62.

The leading quartet was one stroke clear of Spain's Pablo Larrazabal, with Richard Sterne, the in-form JC Ritchie and Germany's Nicolai von Dellinghausen a shot further back.

Former Ryder Cup star Fisher (41) birdied the seventh, his 16th, to become the only player to get to 11-under par.

Competing without full playing privileges for the first time since he came through the Qualifying School in 2005, he swiftly bogeyed the par-three eighth to fall back into a tie for the lead.

However, he's been showing signs of a return to form, and after recording a runner-up finish in the Ras Al Khaimah Classic in his most recent start three weeks ago, he's looking to push on.

"It was a lot of fun," Fisher said. "I played really, really solid.

"All in all, I drove the ball really, really nicely; if I wasn't hitting fairways, I was barely five yards off the fairway.

"I chipped in for an eagle on my first hole. That's a nice little eagle three to start the day."

Du Plessis lives just a one-minute ride from the first tee, and he took advantage of his local knowledge to make10 birdies.

"It was an incredible round today," said the 25-year old South African. "Sometimes it's hard when you're on your home course to expect a good score, but this course is forgiving, and I know the greens well.

"But you know, if you give yourself a lot of opportunities, you can shoot low on any course. It just makes it that much more special that it's on my home course."

Strydom is a former resident and he too made hay.

"I'm very familiar with the golf course and I gave myself a ton of chances today," he said. "The thing with this golf course is there are going to be chances out there, so you just have to be patient and give yourself good opportunities."

Elvira made seven straight birdies on the back nine to clip two shots off his career-best.

"I loved it," he said. "Days like these, you don't want the round to end. It's going to be a birdie fest this week."