THE 149TH OPEN

July 16, 2021

Shane Lowry

Mixed Zone

Q. Shane, thanks for joining us. Please reflect on your round.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I'm pretty happy. Obviously I was going out today on the cut mark. Knew the cut was probably going to be 1-over maybe -- to be honest, I thought it was going to go to 2-over but looks like it's going to be 1-over. So need to go shoot a decent number to put myself up the leaderboard.

Obviously saw Collin got 9-under this morning, which you know is a difficult situation when you're going out to not try and force it or get too ahead of yourself. I played lovely golf today and put myself in the fairway, and when I did, I gave myself chances and managed to hole a few putts, so very happy on my day.

Q. The contrast between yesterday and today in terms of performance, you were right up today at the top of the stats. 12 out of 14 fairways; 15 out of 18 greens in regulation. You seemed to be putting into buckets. With that in mind, how happy are you moving into the weekend thinking that there might be a proper challenge to regain the trophy?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, obviously I'm seven back now. I was, whatever, seven back when I finished yesterday, so not much different. I was 10 back in morning. Knew I needed to shoot a good score. To be honest, I sat down this morning with high coach Neil and we talked through yesterday's round. I felt I was a bit hard on myself yesterday. I didn't play as bad as I felt I did.

So just kind of trusted myself to go out there today and shoot a good score, and thankfully I did.

Q. Good work today. Just expand on that just a little bit. We saw you on the range for quite a while after the round yesterday with Neil. What exactly were you working on? Any changes in strategy today?

SHANE LOWRY: I didn't feel like I hit my driver very well yesterday and I stood up hit it 40 yards right on the 1st today, so I felt like I had it fixed. And then I only -- didn't hit many drivers out there today. I hit a lot of 3-irons off the tee. We got very fortunate with the weather. The course firmed up and there wasn't as much wind as maybe yesterday or this morning.

I was able to hit a lot of 3-irons off the tee. I just said I feel like if I'm on the fairway and I have an iron shot, no matter what club it is, obviously 6-iron down, I feel like I can give myself chances.

We just focused on putting ourselves in good positions off the tee and it paid off. I think as it firms up over the weekend it'll suit me a little bit better as well. Look, I hit a couple of decent drives out there today, but I think I only hit four drivers, so -- four, yeah, is all I hit today. That's kind of probably going to my strategy at the weekend. We'll see how windy it gets or how many drivers I need to hit. It's not like I can't hit it. I'm still hitting it okay.

But, yeah, I just felt like I struggled with my driver. Like I said the question beforehand, I actually was a bit too hard on myself after yesterday's round and I didn't play as badly as I thought I did. Just kind of I didn't put it together, and I probably could have shot under par yesterday if a couple things would've went my way.

Yeah, just put it in play off the tee and I feel like I can shoot a score around here.

Q. Just one thing. Well-played. Was it inspiring playing with the other two today? Louis is playing great and Jon Rahm as well. Did that help give you a boost and get you motivated?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it helps you. Whenever one in the group is playing well it helps. I'm sure I helped the lads playing well and getting off to a good start and making a few birdies.

That spurs them on as well. Kind of bounce off each other today. It does help whenever one in the group is playing well. When you're playing with someone who is leading the testimony does spur you on to try and catch them.

I was out there trying to get as many shots as I could back on Louis towards the end because I knew he was going be the leader going into the weekend.

Yeah, we had a great day out there. Like 60 and under for three ball around St George's is pretty good. I'm not sure too many other three balls will do better than that.