Shane Lowry cards best ever opening round at a Major despite the nerves!

Shane Lowry might have carded his best ever opening round at a Major as he took the early clubhouse lead at Royal Portrush, but he admitted there was a few nerves about as he teed off this morning.
Shane LowryShane Lowry
Shane Lowry

The Irishman finished on 67 on the north coast and is hoping it is a sign of things to come for the rest of the week.

"It's my best round by about eight shots," revealed Lowry. "That was nice. It was nice to shoot a good score and hopefully I can go out and keep at it the next few days.

"I was probably as nervous as I've been in quite a while on the first tee, almost ever, I'd say.

"Look, nerves are a good thing, aren't they? It's where you want to be.

"I just hope I'm nervous on Sunday afternoon out there. It's right where you want to be, and you have to tell yourself that when you're there.

"Where would you rather be? Would you rather be here or sitting at home watching on TV?

"I suppose I was quite anxious going out there this morning. The wind was up early. But the first few holes played okay, downwind and I got off to a nice solid start.

"I was off and running and I was enjoying myself, and I played some good golf. I missed a couple of chances coming in. But I got a great break, and good up and down on 16, great break on 17, and managed to make par. I'm fairly happy with four-under."

Lowry admitted he came into today's opener feeling 'uncomfortable', but a pre-tournament pep talk on Wednesday over coffee seems to have done the trick.

"I don't feel like practice went unbelievably well this week," he said.

"I felt a little bit uncomfortable. We went for coffee yesterday down at the Bushmills Inn and we found a little quiet room, we had a great chat for about 40 minutes.

"I left that room full of confidence and ready to go. So we just put everything out in the open, everything out on the table, what could happen, what might happen.

"It's four-under today, go home now and relax and watch a bit of golf in the afternoon and get out there tomorrow and try to make a decent score."

Lowry is one of a number of Irish golfers here this week, but he feels he can go under the radar a bit compared to others, well until today's round anyway!

"I feel like for me I can come here a little more under the radar than the other guys," he said.

"G-Mac is from here, he grew up here. Rory is an hour down the road and obviously had some great times here. And Darren lives here now.

"I feel like for me I can kind of be more under the radar than everyone else. But obviously not now."