Golfers faced tough conditions on day two of the Memorial Tournament
Shane Lowry (Image: Getty Images)
Disaster struck on the back nine for Shane Lowry at the Memorial Tournament on Friday as two double bogeys cost him dearly.
The Offaly man was two-under for his second round after the front nine, but things went from bad to worse on the back.
Lowry’s first bogey of the round came on the tenth, with another coming on the 12th. However, it was the double bogeys on 11 and 18 that really hurt him, with the 39-year-old now one-under for the tournament after a one-over round of 73, three shots worse than his score on Thursday.
Lowry added birdies on the 13th, 15th and 16th in tough and windy conditions as JT Poston battled to a one-shot lead in Ohio, with Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler both struggling to find their best form.
McIlroy was left frustrated by the lightning-fast greens, posting a 74 that included three bogeys and a double-bogey after taking five shots to finish the par-four 13th from a mere 112 yards out.
The Holywood native now has a mountain to climb, trailing Poston by 10 shots — the very same gap separating Scheffler from the lead, with the American admitting he “could have shot 90” after carding a level-par 72.
Poston’s stunning seven-under 65 at Muirfield Village in Ohio left him four shots clear of the entire chasing pack.
Meanwhile, overnight co-leader Tommy Fleetwood tumbled down the standings after a 73, dropping to fourth place and five shots off the pace.
“It was pretty brutal, actually. I still think I got a good score out of that today. I made a bogey on one and six, where I didn’t really feel like I had done anything wrong whatsoever,” he said.
Scheffler’s bid for a third straight title remains very much alive after he rescued three birdies over his closing six holes, having earlier endured three successive bogeys from the eighth and somehow escaping with par after shanking from a bunker at the fifth.
“Overall it was a tough day, I felt I could have shot 90. I may be a lot of things but I’m not a quitter,” he said. “That’s maybe some of the worst I’ve hit it in a couple years out there and I still managed to shoot even par around a golf course that requires you to strike the ball really well.”
US PGA champion Aaron Rai and fellow Englishman Alex Fitzpatrick are both sitting in a share of ninth position at one under par, posting rounds of 70 and 71 apiece.