Shane Lowry just clipped a 21-year-old Open Championship record.
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It’s easy to find history at St. Andrews, but it’s nearly impossible to make it.
The Old Course is just that — old. It is, in fact, the oldest golf course on earth. So too is the Open Championship; the oldest of golf’s majors, and the most historic. In order to make history here, one has to outlast the ghosts of golf’s past — and there are a lot of them.
On Saturday at the Open Championship, Shane Lowry snatched his own little piece of golf history at the Old Course. During his third round charge up the leaderboard, the 2019 Open winner managed a feat that hasn’t been touched in Open Championship play in 21 years. And even that might undersell it.
It all started on the ninth hole, a 352-yard par-4 that has been drivable for most on moving day at the Open. Lowry missed his drive just wide of the green on the 9th, sending his ball into the brush and leaving a wedge into the flagstick. On his ensuing shot, Lowry punched a low spinner out of the rough that squirted onto the green, crawled up toward the flagstick, and then fell in. Bang. Lowry had made eagle.
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Now riding a wave of momentum at seven under, Lowry headed off to the 10th, a similarly short par-4 in the opposite direction. Playing into the wind on Saturday, the 384-yard hole has not been drivable for as many players, but has been equally as scorable as the 9th. Lowry ripped driver down the fairway on 10, a smooth, confident strike that left him with another short wedge shot into the green.
“A tricky hole location on 10 though, mounds and bumps to have to deal with,” the World Feed’s broadcaster said, warning of the danger that hid behind even a simple chip shot.
Lowry, for his part, was unmoved. He hit another low pitch, sending a tiny divot into the air ahead of him. His ball once again shot out onto the green, hurtling directly toward the hole. And once again, before it could slow to a stop, the ball fell into the bottom of the cup.
“This is tremendous!! Two in a row!”
Lowry thrust his arms in the air. He had just chipped-in for eagle on consecutive holes. In a little less than 20 minutes, he’d made up four shots on the field. Suddenly, it was 2019 all over again.
In fact, stats guru Justin Ray tweeted out, it was time to party like it was 2001. Lowry had just become the first golfer in 21 years to make eagle on consecutive holes at the Open Championship, becoming the first player since Phil Mickelson in ’01 to earn the honor.
Further, Ray pointed out, Lowry is the only example of a player to have consecutive eagles on par-4s in a major championship in the last 25 years.
Lowry would go on to give at least two of those strokes back in the holes following No. 10, sinking outside of the top 10 in the process. But whatever his final score on Saturday, he’ll leave with a piece of Old Course history under his belt — and that’s something worth celebrating.
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