{"id":50299,"date":"2026-08-14T11:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/50299\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T11:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T11:40:11","slug":"shane-lowry-in-contention-as-rory-mcilroy-struggles-at-e17-3-million-fedex-st-jude-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/50299\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry in contention as Rory McIlroy struggles at \u20ac17.3 million FedEx St. Jude Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy are both returning to action after a break\"Shane<\/p>\n

Shane Lowry (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

An opening round 69 has left Shane Lowry four shots off the lead on one-under par at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.<\/p>\n

The Offaly man<\/a> is hoping to break into the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings to extend his stay on the PGA Tour beyond this week. He came into the tournament in 62nd place, with the BMW Championship taking place next week.<\/p>\n

Lowry’s <\/a>round included four birdies, one bogey and a double bogey on the par-three 11th after his tee shot went into the water. He is four shots behind the leading American quintet of Jordan Spieth, Michael Thorbjornsen, Kurt Kitayama, Jake Knapp and Michael Kim.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rory McIlroy<\/a> endured a difficult start at the tournament, carding a four-over-par opening round marred by damaging late bogeys.<\/p>\n

The Holywood man was looking to regain form ahead of the PGA Tour Play-offs after a string of underwhelming performances since his successful Masters title<\/a> defence in April \u2013 including a tied 40th finish at The Open at Royal Birkdale.<\/p>\n

McIlroy, sitting 12th in the FedExCup<\/a> rankings, featured in a star-studded group at TPC Southwind with world number one Scottie Scheffler, marking his return to the tournament he missed last year.<\/p>\n

An early dropped shot at the par-five third was quickly clawed back with a birdie at the par-three fourth, though another bogey at the eighth left him one over at the turn.<\/p>\n

McIlroy rolled in a 15-footer for birdie on the 11th, but an errant drive right off the 16th tee resulted in another bogey. His second shot at the 17th then skipped past the green towards the spectator area, forcing a drop before eventually carding a five.<\/p>\n

The 18th offered no respite as McIlroy found water off the tee before coming up short with his approach, leading to a double bogey and a round of 74.<\/p>\n

Scheffler<\/a>, competing for the first time since his runner-up showing at the 3M Open, posted two under par, with his sole blemish arriving at the 15th.<\/p>\n

“I felt like I hit a lot of quality shots with my irons,” he said. “I did a good job of being patient and not trying to force it too much.<\/p>\n

“I feel like I was right on the edge of having a good day, so I felt like patience-wise, I did a pretty good job.”<\/p>\n

Click here to sign up to our sport newsletter, bringing you the top stories and biggest headlines from Ireland and beyond<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy are both returning to action after a break Shane Lowry (Image: Getty Images)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1873,19083,44,399,208,1450],"class_list":["post-50299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rory-mcilroy","tag-fedex-cup","tag-fedex-st-jude-classic","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-scottie-scheffler","tag-shane-lowry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}