Lowry eight back at the Masters: "If my putter warms up over the weekend, I could be dangerous"
Shane Lowry of Ireland plays a stroke from the No. 2 tee during the first round of the 2023 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Thursday, April 6, 2023.
Shane Lowry insists he could still be "dangerous" after he used all his talent to chisel out five closing pars and keep the leaders in his sights at the Masters.
The 2019 Open champion added a level par 72 to his opening 68 in cold, rainy conditions at Augusta National to sit in a six-way tie for 10th place on four-under-par.
He was eight strokes behind leader Brooks Koepka and six adrift of Jon Rahm, who posted a second-round 69 to keep the pressure on the Floridian.
"Look, I'm going to need to play really well," said Lowry, who was tied with Gary Woodland, Justin Rose, Phil Mickelson, Joaquin Niemann and Russell Henley. "And I'm going to need help from Brooks and Jon.
“You just never know anything about this game in this tournament. They say it starts in the back nine on Sunday, so if I can get myself within a few shots of the lead on the back nine tomorrow afternoon, stranger things have happened."
Lowry parred the 14th, made a sensational pitch and putt par-five after flying the 15th with his third, then made a miraculous par from the trees at the 17th, where he cut a five-iron 50 yards in the air, found the front of the green and made a great two-putt. He needed his short game skills again at the 18th, where he finished inches from the right greenside bunker and hit a low spinning lob wedge that released to tap in distance.
While he admitted he will likely need help from the two pace-setters to challenge for victory, Lowry believes he still has a chance of becoming the first Irishman to don the green jacket.
"I'm pretty happy the way I'm playing, and I think if my putter warms up over the weekend, I could be dangerous," said the Clara man, who gave himself a plethora of birdie chances in the middle of his second round but took none of them.
"I probably should have been better over the last two days," he confessed. "Brooks obviously got out in some nice weather and played some really, really good golf and got to 12-under. So Rahmbo's doing a good job of trying to catch him. "But you know today, this afternoon is going to be very tough and the scoring's going to be very tough. So in a way, it helps the chasers. I think if we can go out and shoot 70 or better this afternoon we can have a chance going into tomorrow.
"It just depends what they do with the pins. Like someone's going to go out and shoot 67. That would be a great score. If you managed to break 70 this afternoon in these conditions, it will be a pretty good score."
Seamus Power completed the last six holes of his delayed second round in level par for a 72 to make the cut for the second year running and share 40th place on one-over.
But with conditions set to be hugely demanding for the remainder of the tournament, Lowry knows it's going to be a grind.
"It's brutal," he said of the 18th, where he had to hit a four-iron for his approach. "Like I flicked a little 9-iron in there on Thursday. So it's playing a lot different. Holes like 16, standing there, it's just impossible to get it back to that flag because you're just so scared of going in that bunker over the green.
"So it's going to take a lot of good golf and patience this afternoon to give yourself a chance. I don't particularly enjoy it, but I go out there and give it my best and I know I can deal with it.
"Coming out, I probably would have taken five pars off you if you had given me them this morning. It's pretty difficult because you could have gone out there this morning, made a couple of bogeys and felt like you were out of the tournament. "So I still feel like I'm in the tournament. I know I'm eight behind, but I'm hanging around there."
Asked if he'd take 12 under now and sit in the clubhouse, he beamed: "I would anyway. (Laughing.) Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It depends how Brooks and Rahm, they're two of the best players in the world are up there, depends how they play. "If they could go out and go away from the field this afternoon, then it could be a two-horse race or they could come back to us and we all could have a chance. So you just don't know."
Rahm had nine holes of his second round to complete in steady drizzle and played them in one-under for a 69, mixing birdies at the 12th, 15th and 17th with bogeys at the 16th and 18th.
As for Power, he got up and down after a penalty drop for par at the 13th having found Rae's Creek with his final shot on Friday evening.
He then birdied the 14th from 14 feet and parred the next three before failing to get up and down from the right greenside bunker at the last.
"I was very pleased with this morning," Power said. "Obviously I wasn't in a great spot and I had to get up and down for par a stay at plus one on 13. "You knew it was going to play long coming in, so the birdie on 14, it's not that I needed it, but it certainly gave me some breathing room coming down the last."
While he's 13 shots off the lead, Power is just five shots outside the top 10 and knows he still has a chance to improve on last year's tie for 27th.
"If we play this afternoon, it's not going to be pleasant. So it's going to be tough for everyone. But if you can get it to 13 tee under par, maybe pick up a few more and you can make up a lot of ground. So we'll see what happens. Obviously depends on what's going to happen from out of the sky."
The cut fell at three-over par with Tiger Woods sneaking in on the mark despite finishing bogey-bogey for a 73. Of the favourites, Justin Thomas was the biggest victim as he bogeyed three of the last four and shot 78 to miss by one stroke following a back nine of 42.
