Pádraig Harrington was dissecting his own round with the media on Saturday when his eye caught a TV screen just as Shane Lowry was plotting his exit from the notorious Coffin Bunker on the par-three 8th. “Oh no,” said Harrington, mid-sentence. Lowry was one-under for his round at that point and eight-under for the tournament.
He had elbow room to spare at the summit of the leaderboard but his lie in the sand was awkward and he would leave the Postage Stamp nursing a dirty double bogey. It wasn’t terminal in itself but the weather was getting its dander up. Negligible winds were building up to a considerable gust as the Offaly man’s round went on and they allied with torrential downpours that made the back nine an absolute slog.
Lowry carded five double bogeys on the way in. It was so punishing that it required drivers at par-threes and his demeanour after a damaging six-over 77 that leaves him on one-under and three behind overnight leader Billy Horschel was worrying. He had horsed an on-course commentator out of it at the 11th and the R&A got an earful when he was done for not taking heed of the forecast and bringing some tees forward.
Horschel, Justin Rose, Xander Schauffele and surprise packet Dan Brown had all faced the worst of the elements on the Saturday afternoon too. they had managed to traverse the windswept links in far better fashion. The task for Lowry now as he attempts to chase down a second Open Championship is to flush these toxins from his mind by .