THE 151ST OPEN

July 20, 2023

Shane Lowry

Mixed Zone

Q. From your point of view, what was it like out there?

SHANE LOWRY: I felt like there was decent stuff in there and a few silly mistakes. A little disappointing where I feel like I might have played a little bit better than that. Level par before I played out there and with the two par 5s to come you think you're going to give yourself a chance to shoot under par.

Look, it is what it is. There's some good scores. I haven't really looked at the scores, but I'm sure there's some bad scores, as well. I didn't feel like it was that easy. I felt like the back nine was playing quite tricky. To get the ball in the fairway and get irons in your hand, tricky shots, wind in out of the left.

Yeah, I don't really know what to make of my day. Kind of felt pretty average. Some nice stuff but some average stuff, as well.

Q. A lot of players are frustrated with all the questions it seems to be asking, not letting you settle anywhere.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, you stand on every tee and almost every bunker is in play. You're standing there and you're kind of trying to figure out what to do because if you lay back, long way in, it's quite tricky, and you're just playing for pars. If take it on and hit a bad shot and end up in a bunker it's a penalty shot basically.

Yeah, it does ask a lot of questions, this golf course, but it's the most well-bunkered golf course that we play. They're everywhere, and they're very penal.

Q. What do you feel you might need to tweak?

SHANE LOWRY: I don't know. I feel like I wasn't far away today from shooting a decent score. Like I said, playing in '15 I drew a decent lie there and made a bad mistake missing that second shot left where that pin was; made a bad bogey there.

But other than that, like you're going to make bogeys out there. You try and make as little bogeys as you can. It would have been nice for that one to drop on the last. Level par would have felt a lot better.

Look, it's easy to stand here and look at the guys at the top of the leaderboard, 5-under and few people -under and stuff.

But it wasn't that easy. I'll go home and 24 hours until I tee off tomorrow, so I will just take it easy and get out there tomorrow and do my best.

Q. The way the weather is forecast for the weekend, and 72 is kind of a decent solid first round, it's still there, isn't it, chance of winning?

SHANE LOWRY: Yes. Yes. Look, I've shown over the last few weeks that I can go and shoot low any day I go out there.

I played nicely. I hit some nice shots, hit some average shots. It's not an easy golf course. Like I said, it's just easy to stand there and look at the guys who are shooting good scores and say that's what you should be doing.

But I think anything under par is a decent score out there. I obviously didn't do that, but I wasn't far away.

Q. (Indiscernible).

SHANE LOWRY: Left of the green? Yeah, to be honest, it's funny. Like I didn't know -- I didn't think my tee shot got along that far because I hit the shorter iron in there and tried to flight it in. Hit it, and it was average enough. Like it was one of those where I probably should have, could have went higher with it, but I was trying to hit I feel like a normal ball on the greens. I was thinking, if I get this inside 10 feet I can make a par.

Maybe I should have went for that chip a little better, and yeah.

Q. Solid finish, nice approach on 16.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I was frustrated there because I had made a really bad mistake on the 15th. Bogeying that hole feels really frustrating. I probably hit the wrong club off the 16 tee, hitting driver. I probably should have hit 3-wood to take the bunkers out of play.

But I got lucky and hit a nice shot in there, and got lucky on 17 again and didn't get too lucky on the last, but it was nice.