Lowry Centimetres From Bagging A ‘Bear Trap’ Ace.

3 years ago by Comments Off on Lowry Centimetres From Bagging A ‘Bear Trap’ Ace.

Shane Lowry went within centimetres of bagging  a ‘Bear Trap’ ace during the opening round of the Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens in Florida.

It was an easy tap-in birdie after his 9-iron shot of 145-yards into the island-like green, and along with two birdies over his closing four holes to hand Lowry a two-under 68 and head to lunch inside the top-10 in the $US 8.4m event.

Lowry, who kicked-started his round from the 10th hole was level par coming the par-3 17th hole, and the final hole of the treacherous 3-hole stretch – par 3, 15th, par-4 16th and the 17th – named ‘The Bear Trap’ after Jack ‘The Bear’ Nicklaus, who designed the PGA National course.

Lowry, and runner-up in the event a year ago, looked on anxiously as his ball bounced a foot shy of the hole, jumped the cup and stopped a foot behind the flag.


“I nearly pinned that one on 17 today”, he said smiling.

“I hit a nice shot there today and obviously — I think it lipped out. It came very close to the ace, and I was just happy the ball was on dry land, to be honest. So, a nice ‘2’”.

And with the ‘2’ on 17 bringing back memories of his ace at a similar island-like green two weeks shy of a year ago at the famed 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass, and venue next fortnight for the $US 25m Players Championship.

“An ace would have been great but maybe I’m saving the 1 for Sawgrass in a couple of weeks (smiling)” he said.

Lowry was level par through 14 holes and then holed birdie putts of 10-feet at the par-4 sixth hole (his 15th) before stepping-up to a 23-footer at the next, the par-3 seventh (16th) to send that into the cup for a ‘2’.

“I do like golf where if you break 70 you’re pretty happy with yourself,” he said.

“I am happy with 2-under today. It’s just that most holes out there are tricky. The wind lay down for most of the day. Wasn’t really up that much. It was as gettable as this course gets.

“I played nice. I didn’t hole as many putts as I would have liked. I felt like I could have shot a couple better. But I’m happy all in all.”

The American pair of Billy Horschel and Joseph Bramlett were the early leaders posting a pair of 65s.

Double Honda Classic champ Padraig Harrington was out in the afternoon half of the draw.



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