MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 6, 2023

Shane Lowry

Quick Quotes

Q. Lovely opening round. Can you give us your assessment of things?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it was pretty good. Felt like I was in control of my ball out there today. It was nice. I said to Darren, I hit my second shot on 18 and I was like, that was a pretty good round of golf. And obviously it's nice to go up and roll in that putt on the last as well. I'm pretty happy with myself.

Q. You looked very comfortable out there.

SHANE LOWRY: I didn't feel it. (Laughing.) You're never comfortable on this place. There's always, even though I was playing good golf, there's always, you've got -- especially when you go on to the back nine there's, most holes are chances to make birdie and chances to trip you up. So you just have to stay patient and stay on your game and in your routine. And that's what I did. I felt like I did a great job of doing all that today. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with myself.

Q. Obviously nice birdie at 18, but was that a round that you felt could have been even better?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, but, you know, 4-under around here in the opening round is pretty good. I mean, the course is, the course was playing a little bit firmer and faster than when we played it the last few days. So, yeah, it wasn't easy. I mean, the scoring is pretty decent, there's a few lads going low, but it's one of those courses that anything under 70 you'll be pretty happy every day.

Q. How tricky is the chipping out here? Do you almost view it as a chance to show off your skills?

SHANE LOWRY: No, I actually -- I think -- it's nearly too hard. Like as in there's certain shots that are almost too hard that you just have to be clever with 'em. Thankfully I didn't miss many greens today. But I do find, I have over the years found it difficult to chip around here. It's quite hard to spin the ball, quite hard to strike it really well the way the grass is cut. So I think this golf course is all about your mid-iron play and your wedges. From outside a hundred yards, if you get that dialed in, if you have your mid-iron play dialed in I think you can do a good job around here and that's what I did today.

Q. With the best round of the day so far, obviously you missed at the first hole and then you collected a few birdies back-to-back-to-back, ending with that birdie. How would you describe the flow of the round today?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it was good, I do feel like I could have got going better, especially early on. I missed that really short putt on the 1st, which was, I had a bit of a shock to the system. But I got back on it straight away. I didn't birdie the 2nd, but I felt like I got into the round pretty quick and I hit some lovely shots. I didn't convert, but then I holed a lovely putt on 7. I birdied 8 and I birdied 9 and I got the round going. And then you go into the back nine, 10, 11, 12, it's tricky. And even when I hit my tee shot out of position on 13. It's just tricky out there. The wind is not very strong, there's not much there at all, but it is kind of switching a little bit. So you have to stay on the ball with that as well.

Q. Based on the weather, as you mentioned the wind, we are obviously expecting rain, how satisfied are you to get this round in with some birdies under your belt?

SHANE LOWRY: I think it was important to shoot a good score today. I was trying not to put too much pressure on myself to do so, but, yeah, I knew going into today how important today's round is because who knows what the next three days are going to hold.

Q. Given what you said about the difficulty of chipping do you have empathy for a guy like Hovland who has admittedly struggled with that around the green?

SHANE LOWRY: Not really. He's 7-under. I think there's a lot, there's been a lot of talk over the well the years, the few years that he is out on TOUR, and every time I seem to play with him or see him he chips in. So I know Viktor, I know how hard he works at it and he's one of the best players in the world and he'll figure it out.

Q. Do you have any favorite stories about him? Is he kind of a fun guy?

SHANE LOWRY: No, he's just a good guy. I obviously got to know him at the last Ryder Cup. He's just a great fellow. I was chatting with him in the locker room this morning, he said it's his first time playing with Tiger. And I said, well that should be interesting. But he's doing a good job with it today.

Q. Were you blocked out on 11?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I had to, I hit my tee shot right and, yeah, I just had no real shot. I could have went for the green, but I could have also hit in the water. So it was one of those where try and leave yourself inside 10 or 15 feet for par and make a par. I actually hit a great putt for par there and it just missed. But, yeah, it was just one of those -- like 11 is kind of a par-4 and a half now where you're just really trying to make par and not make 6. If you make 5 you can deal with that.

Q. You've had this day circled in your diary for a long time. You made advance trips this year. Is it a sense of relief to stop thinking about it?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, but it's not over yet. It's not over yet. We got a long way to go. So, yeah, I've, yeah, I prepared really hard and really well for this week and it's satisfying to get off to a good start. But we all know how long there is to go in this tournament. But, yeah, I did prepare probably for -- I came here three times in the last three weeks, four weeks, played a lot of golf here. So it's just a place I feel comfortable at now. But, yeah, I did prepare pretty well for this.

Q. Is it through experience that you find the patience to wait for the score to come. You missed the putt on 1, but your ball striking was still there all the time.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I suppose. I don't know, to be honest. Like the thing is, like I'm, I think I'm comfortable in my own skin and the way I'm playing and that you just have to keep going, just keep one foot in front of the other and keep going forward. There's nothing that happened behind you that you can change. So whether I shot 68 or 78 today I still have to go and shoot a good score tomorrow. So it's kind of, it's one of those where I put that round behind me and put everything behind me and just move on and hopefully I can do it again tomorrow.