Shane Lowry began the weather-delayed BMW Championship in Maryland with a level-par round of 70 to keep his FedEx Cup hopes alive while Rory McIlroy was also level par after 14 holes of his round.
The pair came into this week with very different objectives on the PGA Tour, but East Lake, and the FedEx Cup’s season-ending Tour Championship, is on the horizon before attentions turn to the Ryder Cup in Bethpage in six weeks.
For Lowry, he is outside the automatic places for Team Europe at present and his disappointing T59 finish in Memphis at the opening play-off saw him slip to 27th in the FedEx Cup rankings, and he will need to remain competitive in Caves Valley this weekend.
McIlroy finished fourth the last time the BMW Championship was held here, four years ago, and he was paired with World No 1, and Open Champion, Scottie Scheffler for the first two rounds.
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Lowry knew he had to make a fast start and had three birdies in his first three holes. His wonderful approach on the Par 4 first, left him with 18 inches for birdie. He slotted a 12-foot birdie putt on the second, and one from just over 8ft on the third.
The Clara native dropped shots on the seventh and 10th, but bounced back on the Par 4 11th, following a brilliant approach and a 16ft birdie putt. A superb long iron provided the platform for another birdie chance from 8ft on the 519-yard Par 4 12th, but he missed.
He then bogeyed 14 and 15 and despite his second birdie of the back nine, on 16, another dropped shot on 17 saw him finish his round on level-par.
McIlroy was wayward off the tee and he had three bogeys on his front nine, losing shots on the second, fourth and sixth. The only highlight was the third, where his tee shot set up a 10ft putt for birdie, which he drained.
While Scheffler had three birdies in the first four holes, McIlroy was forced to chase and he finally made some headway with a brilliant birdie on the ninth.
And just as McIlroy began to find some momentum, the reigning FedEx Cup champion faltered with back-to-back bogeys to fall out of the lead. Meanwhile, McIlroy picked up another shot on the 10th with a putt from just under 10ft.
The Holywood golfer almost holed his second from 201 yards on the 12th, but had to settle for par after his putt from the fringe grazed the hole. He had further pars on 13 and 14 before the klaxon sounded after his tee shot on the Par 4 15th.
