Lowry ‘Soaring’ Stateside As Moynihan Overcomes ‘Horrific’ Covid-19 Test In Strong Austrian Start

Open champ Shane Lowry was soaring Stateside with a Workday Charity Open penultimate hole eagle while Gavin Moynihan celebrated a return to European Tour competition with a gutsy bogey-free display at the Austrian Open.

Lowry was enduring a roller-coaster opening 12 holes of three birdies and just as many bogeys before he birdied his 15th and brilliantly holed a three-footer for an eagle ‘3’ at his 17th in a three-under par 69 on the Muirfield Village course in Dublin, Ohio.

The effort handed Lowry an early clubhouse share of 11th place and three shots behind Canadian, Adam Hadwin who posted a six-under par 66.

Shane Lowry turns around a roller coaster round with a birdie and an eagle over the closing few holes on day one of the Workday Charity Open

Lowry’s effort comes after a week’s absence from competition and with news while he was on course that fellow Open Champion, Tiger Woods will next week end a five-month competition absence in teeing-up in the Jack Nicklaus hosted Memorial.

Woods is also a five-time winner of the Memorial and went onto his 6.5m followers Twitter account to remark: “I’m looking forward to playing in the @MemorialGolf next week. I’ve missed going out and competing with the guys and can’t wait to get back out there.”

Some 7,400 klms to the east and Moynihan put aside a ‘horrific’ pre-tournament Coronavirus test to be just inside the top-20 on day one of the Euro 1/2m Austrian event.

It is the first European event in four months and the first time Moynihan has had a Tour scorecard in his back pocket since mid-February.

Moynihan had travelled to Vienna alongside good friends Niall Kearney and Robin Dawson from Dublin with masks and hand sanitisers.

All was going well until Moynihan was put in a chair at 7.30am on Tuesday morning for his first Austrian Open Covid-19 test.

“It was actually horrific to be honest,” he laughed. “It’s like a minute and a half long but aw man, it’s not nice!

“There are two tests but one swab goes straight up your nose and it was quite painful – only for four or five seconds – but I was surprised by how far up your nose they go!

“Everyone said the same thing, they were surprised by how intrusive it was but it was only sore for a few minutes after and it was grand then. There was a bit of a dry swab in your mouth that triggered a bit of a gag reflex as well but if this is what we have to do to get back playing, it’s only a small inconvenience.”

Dawson and Kearney struggled in posting respective Austria rounds of 76 and 78.

 

 



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