AUGUSTA, Ga. — Shane Lowry has had this week marked on his calendar for some time.
The 35-year-old opened his 2023 Masters Tournament campaign with a solid 68, capping off Thursday with a birdie on No. 18.
“Yeah, it was pretty good. Felt like I was in control of my ball out there today. It was nice,” he said. “I said to Darren (Reynolds), 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.”
Lowry started the day with a hiccup, missing a short birdie putt on No. 1. He didn’t let it set the tone for the round, as he strung together three birdies on Nos. 7, 8 and 9.
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“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,” he said. “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.”
He’s coming off a third-place finish in the 2022 Masters, plus he played a number of practice rounds at Augusta National Golf Club prior to this week. Even then, Lowry said it’s hard to be truly comfortable on this course in this environment.
“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,” he said. “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.”
With heavy amounts of rain in the forecast over the next couple of days, Lowry said getting a solid round in Thursday was important.
“I think it was important to shoot a good score today,” he said. “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.”
Even with the numbers going as low as they did today, Lowry is comfortable with where he’s positioned himself heading into Friday.
“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,” he said. “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.”
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