Shane Lowry keeps calm and carries British Open lead at Troon

“Look, I’m going to have a very late tee time tomorrow. I’m not going to be playing for another 24 hours. I know what that’s about,” Lowry said. “I know tomorrow is going to be a long day, but I’ve done it before.

“For me, it’s just about going out and playing my own game, shooting the best score I can. Try not to worry about what other people are doing and just trying to take care of your own personal stuff.”

Corey Conners of Listowel, Ont., largely avoided the chaos and sat in a tie for seventh at 1 under after a round of 70. But Mackenzie Hughes of Dundas, Ont., had a run of three straight bogeys on holes 6-8 en route to a round of 74. He fell nine spots into a tie for 13th at 1 over.

Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin, both from Abbotsford, B.C., missed the cut after each posted a second straight round of 4-over 75.

It was best to keep blinders on at Royal Troon. There were some harrowing scenes.

Justin Thomas, who opened with a 68 to get himself in the mix, shot a 45 on the front nine and played his best golf from there to salvage a 78 and make sure he at least made the cut.

Robert MacIntyre had an even tougher start. Scotland’s biggest star after winning his national Open last week, MacIntyre was stuck in pot bunkers and high grass. He was 8 over for his round through four holes — four holes! — and then put together a big fight on the back nine in a bid to make the weekend.

Aguri Iwasaki had them all beat. He took a 9 on consecutive holes and shot 52 on the back nine for a 91. One of those 9s was on the par-3 14th, where he took four shots out of two bunkers and once had to go backward toward the fairway.

Tiger Woods missed another cut in a major — that was one of the few surprises because he opened with a 79 — but left his mark by tying his own mark with his highest 36-hole score as a pro with 156. The only time he had a higher 36-hole score was at Bay Hill in 1994 when he was a senior in high school.

Woods had company in leaving early. Rory McIlroy, who started with a 78, needed a good start and got a triple bogey on the par-5 fourth hole. He barely moved it from high grass, chipped from more rough into a bunker and missed a 4-foot putt.

Masters champion Scottie Scheffler missed all that calamity. He put together another steady round of 70 — three birdies, two bogeys and the rest pars — and joined the group at 2-under 140. He was five shots behind Lowry as he chases his second major of the year.

Joaquin Niemann of Chile managed another 71 despite taking a quintuple-bogey 8 on the par-3 eighth hole — the Postage Stamp — that measures a mere 123 yards. He was in three bunkers around the tiny green and three-putted when he finally got out of them. Niemann also made six birdies in a most remarkable round of level par.

So much chaos across the century-old links, and it looked for a brief moment like Lowry might take part. It took so long to play the 11th hole that Jordan Spieth in the group behind him walked over to the side of the fairway and sat down near a gorse bush to wait.

Lowry at least kept it in play, though it was in the rough to the right. He was distracted by a photographer and angry at himself for not backing off the shot that he tugged left toward a clump of gorse.

Figuring it would be lost in the prickly mess, Lowry hit a provisional for a lost ball onto the green, a terrific shot. One problem. Someone found the ball. It was no longer lost, so the provisional ball was not in play.

Lowry took a penalty drop from the bush, going back to find a place where he had a swing, put it short of the green, chipped on and salvaged a double bogey 6.

“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6. It wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament,” Lowry said.

He made five birdies on the day, and yet nothing felt better than a par. That came on the 12th, one of the toughest holes into the wind. He hit driver and 4-iron to 30 feet, two putts for a most beautiful, calming par.

“The best shots I’ve hit all week,” Lowry said. “From then on, it was playing quite difficult, but I felt like you could give yourself chances on the way in, and that’s what I did.”

And now comes a big opportunity for Lowry to reclaim that claret jug, for Rose to become the first player in the modern era of exemptions to come through 36-hole qualifying, and for Brown to become one of the biggest surprises since Ben Curtis in 2003 at Royal St. George’s.

And so many others are very much in the mix, starting with Scheffler, golf’s best player.

“I’ve played two solid rounds and it put me five shots back, and I’ll continue to try to execute and just continue to try to hit good shots and hit good putts,” Scheffler said, making it all sound so simple on a day when nothing felt easy.

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AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press

by Canadian Press

Shane Lowry keeps calm and carries British Open lead at Troon

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