The Irishman carded a wonderful 64 to shoot to the top of the leaderboard.
Shane Lowry in action in India.(Image: (Photo by Jason Butler/Getty Images))
Shane Lowry leads the DP World India Championship in New Delhi after firing a wonderful 64 in his opening round on Thursday.
The Offaly native took to the course on Thursday afternoon local time, and produced a Birdie blitz on the back nine to seize a one shot lead on 8-under par from early pace-setter Keita Nakajima.
Lowry made a solid start in India and made the turn in 2-under par, but he saved his best stuff for the closing nine, reeling off five Birdies on the spin between the 11th and 15th to get himself into a tie for the lead.
Delhi Golf Club’s Lodhi Course is playing particularly hard off the tee this week and many players including Rory McIlroy have opted not to take a driver out with them as the tee shots require accuracy over power.
Lowry has the driver in the bag, though he hasn’t used it too much, however, in search of a Birdie on 18 to take the lead, he unleashed the big stick and came close to disaster as his errant tee shot missed the fairway right before luckily stopping short of the trees.
The 2019 Open Champion was able to get himself out of danger before making a brilliant up-and-down to save his Birdie and hit the top of the leaderboard.
“I putted nicely today. I played nice. Gave myself a lot of chances and then on the back nine, it was pretty nice. It was a really nice group, playing with Luke and Tommy, we all had a great time and we all played pretty good. I just rolled off a few more birdies than they did on the back nine,” said Lowry, who was playing alongside Ryder Cup teammate Tommy Fleetwood and captain Luke Donald.
“You know, 64 is a really nice score. It’s not that hard when you are out there but when you start missing fairways it becomes quite tricky. Happy with that.
“When I saw the draw, I was really happy. Being with the lads, we’ve had some good things happen the last few weeks. It was nice. I haven’t played with Luke that much in tournaments but obviously I know him pretty well and we all fed off each other and it was nice.”
Earlier on Thursday, Rory McIlroy got his tournament off to a solid start, carding a decent 69 that sees himself inside the top-20 on the leaderboard.
