Dubai: Ireland’s Shane Lowry is hoping he can outlast the fatigue factor and have something credible against his name over the next three days of the DP World Tour Championship.
Lowry, whose best this season was finishing runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the BMW PGA Championship, shot birdies on the first, second and fifth and another four on the down stretch, ended the day with a 66 to remain tied with the world number one on Thursday.
With three more days of golf remaining, the 27-year-old hopes he can last the distance. “It’s been a long and eventful year, but a good year. I’ve got three more days left in this season and hopefully it will be three good ones,” Lowry hoped.
Despite the fatigue factor playing a huge role, Lowry was hopeful he could get the same assistance from his short game. “I putted quite nicely today and drove it quite well too. I don’t know how many fairways I missed but definitely wasn’t too many,” he added.
Following a bogey on the tenth hole, the 27-year-old came up with a fantastic final burst that saw him with birdies on all but two of his last six holes. “I think I putted quite nicely today. I struggled, had a bad bogey on 10 and I was struggling up the 12th hole and holed about a 15 footer for par which kind of got me going and I holed a nice putt on the next. On the par-5 [14th hole], I hit three decent shots and holed that putt, as well. The greens are beautiful out there. They are perfect, so I have no excuses,” he smiled.
Lowry was in the mix for last week’s Turkish Airlines Open by Ministry of Youth in Antalya after being tied for the lead. However, a final round meltdown saw him blow his chances for the title. “Sunday was quite a difficult day for me and I couldn’t wait to get here to be honest. Once I got here on Monday, I was fine,” he added.
“Obviously, I put myself into contention which is a positive I can look at from last week. I gave myself a chance to win last week. If I can give myself a chance to win again this week, maybe I’ll do it. I’m just looking to give myself the same chance this week and maybe I won’t mess it up.”
Currently 52nd in the world, Lowry will move into the top-50 at the end of the year with a whole new world of getting into the Masters beckoning him. “It’s been playing on my mind. I just sat down with my coach this week and we said to each other that I need to just try and go out and play well and let everything else take care of itself. Thankfully that’s what I did today so far and hopefully I have three more days of it,” he shrugged.
