Down the range Dustin Johnson and Pádraig Harrington stood side by side, both with drivers in hand. Two men among many, taking aim and guided by yellow flags which served dual purposes as distance markers and wind vanes.
The missiles launched by Johnson, the world number one, carried over 300 yards, and came up shy of the netting. Those drives hit by Harrington, with his unorthodox follow-through, were true and pure, just shorter than DJ’s. But not by much.
On his way past Shane Lowry stopped for a quick chat with Harrington. For over half an hour he had gone through his own routine. This is links turf, and to many it is his domain. Lowry might have had slight regrets about skipping last week’s Scottish Open but his eye is on the bigger prize, and this 146th Open championship will – if the cards fall right – start a seven-week stint of tournaments.
“I am playing Canada next week, and then if I don’t get into Akron I am coming home and I am playing PGA, Wyndham and then, hopefully, a few FedEx. All going to plan I’ll play seven in a row which I would never do, but it is the business end of the season and especially on the PGA Tour it is kind of where you want to be playing.”
Lowry’s ball-striking on the practice ground was impressive. Purely struck – beautiful repetitive sounds of club face hitting ball. Time and time again.
But it is not about what happens on the range that matters. It is about what happens with a card in hand, and Lowry is heading into another Major championship – the 19th of his career – aware that it is all about what he himself does; how he crafts shots and how he plots his way around the links if that Claret Jug is ever to be his.
Connection
This time he needs to up his game. At St Andrews in 2015 and at Royal Troon last year, Lowry missed the cut in the Open when expectations were high.
Now, making a first visit to Royal Birkdale on the Lancashire coast, there is an immediate connection. “It’s possibly one of the best courses I’ve ever played,” said Lowry.
Straight away the links impacted him. And that’s good, isn’t it?
“It’s important to like it. Certain courses you go to, you don’t really like, even when you go back. No matter how well you are playing, it’s hard to get to like them.
“It just goes to show you what I do in Wentworth every year, when I get to courses that I really like ... when I got to Oakmont [US Open 2016] I loved it straight away. When you get to certain places you just love it, and you feel at home there. This certainly feels like one of those.”
He added: “I think it’s going to be windy. I think the forecast is not great, so there are going to be a lot of half-shots, and a lot of knock-down shots, and a lot of chips and putts. It’s going to be a bit of a grind this week, but when you know that at the start of the week you can mentally prepare for it.”
Preparation
Since arriving here on Sunday – with wife Wendy and daughter Iris, a first plane flight for the baby – Lowry’s mind has been on getting the preparation right. Last week’s prep work involved rounds at Portmarnock, Royal Dublin and Portmarnock Links, probably the most links golf he has played in a week off, and he played Birkdale on Monday with Lee Westwood and Mark Foster. He played another 18 holes, this time with Harrington and Americans Daniel Berger and Kevin Chappell.
Happy with the tee-times?
“I’m late and late, so I’ll be taking the bins in on Friday,” quipped Lowry, a line once used by the late Christy O’Connor jnr. “It just depends on the weather. It’s such a spread draw at the Open, and you don’t know what the weather’s going to be like.”
Lowry’s form, lukewarm earlier in the season, has heated up. But not enough. He contended at the BMW PGA in Wentworth, and again at the Memorial. Close, but no cigar either time.
“Some days you are out there and you really have to play good golf. And I feel like I am really hitting the ball well. I am hitting it solid and I feel good on the greens and my chipping is decent. I feel like my game is there, and I feel like some week it is all going to come together, and I am just hoping it is going to be this week.”
Of his previous 18 starts in the Majors, Lowry has had three top-10s. Two of them came in US Opens and one in the 2014 British Open at Hoylake. He’d like to see his name on the leaderboards around the course.
“It’s funny, and I suppose it is a weakness I have, that when I am fighting it out at the back end of the leader board I struggle a little bit. But when I get up there and I am there, I can really push on. I feel if I can get myself at the business end of the tournament on a Friday afternoon I feel like I can really kick on.
Cut mark
“In this game you find yourself a lot on the cut mark or one inside the cut mark or one outside the cut because that’s just how it is when things aren’t going your way, that’s just how you find yourself.
“Especially over the last year I have found myself there a lot, and it is a hard place to play golf, and it is a hard place to play good golf. You are playing very cagey and trying to make pars whereas when you’re at the top of the leaderboard you are setting your goals higher and setting your sights higher. You tend to make more birdies and keep going from there.”
On this links pars will feel like birdies.
