The duo of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry have drawn their fourball in the afternoon session at the Ryder Cup, with their match against Sam Burns and Patrick Cantlay coming right down to the wire.

After a pedestrian start, their match ignited on the sixth hole. McIlroy would sink an impressive putt to move one up on the Americans. The reaction from the two Irishmen said it all.

Some going.

The Masters champion would go on to nail another excellent putt on the following hole to extend that lead to two.

Lowry certainly enjoyed getting that one over on the home crowd.

However, the American pair certainly were not going to give up in this one. They would eventually pull one hole back in the tenth, leaving just one between the sides with eight holes to play.

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Shane Lowry had the perfect response, producing a stunning approach shot on the 11th before rolling in a birdie. He seemed to point at a Tricolour in the crowd in celebration, as well as eye up the home fans once again.

The Americans would battle back yet again from that point, soon levelling the match. They could not be separated over the following holes and were tied going down the 18th.

McIlroy would have a birdie putt to win the match, but it rolled just beyond the hole.

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Shane Lowry Gave As Good As He Got From ‘Rowdy’ American Ryder Cup Fans

While Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry would have liked to win their match, a half point is still a decent result in the context of the afternoon session. After taking 2.5 points, Europe will carry a 5.5 to 2.5 lead into Saturday.

Speaking after the end of their round, Shane Lowry said he was pleased with the way the Europeans handled what was a fairly brazen American crowd at times on Friday.

Obviously we’re going to be very happy, but we had this the first day in Rome (in 2023). Luke [Donald] is a great captain, he’s not going to be getting too excited.

We’ve got a job to do, we’ve got two tough days ahead of us. As you’ve seen, it was pretty rowdy out there this afternoon. It’s going to get like that over the next few days.

I feel like we did a great job today. We would have loved to have won that point. Like Rory said, it’s an amazing day for Europe.

We’ll take it.

While Europe will carry a decent lead into the weekend, you can be sure that the American fans will continue to get on the backs of the visiting team over the remainder of the Ryder Cup. As for Shane Lowry, he showed today that he will be well able to handle that.

It should make for an exciting couple of days of action.

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