The 42 reports from Royal Portrush

SO SHANE, APART from the irritating questions about drinking from the American media, the stone-cold putter, the squalls of bone-drenching rain, the two-shot penalty and now the vomiting bug. . . how’s your Open Championship week been? 

It was on Saturday at Portrush in 2019 that Lowry put together the greatest round of his career, a 63 during which he told his caddie they must enjoy the closing two holes and after which he clamped one hand on the Claret Jug. 

But 313 Saturday afternoons later and the Golfing Gods have wreaked their vengeance on Shane Lowry. Their retribution may not be swift. . . but it will be brutal all the same. 

On a day of benign conditions, Lowry was bumped miles down the leaderboard with a third-round card that ended with a 74 but did not adequately express his torture.

The picture of him lying flat on his back on the ninth fairway as he and playing partner Jon Rahm waited for the green to clear was much more evocative. 

Lowry awoke at 2.30am this morning with a stomach screaming sedition, realising it was his turn to contract a vomiting bug that had careened through his household all week. 

A few hours earlier, the R&A had left him with another kind of sickening feeling, as they gave him a two-stroke, post-round penalty for unwitting moving his ball during a practice swing on the 12th hole.

Lowry insisted he did not know his ball had moved: otherwise he would have replaced it. The impassive tournament organisers pinged him one shot for not replacing his ball and another shot for then playing it from the wrong position.

It meant sliding back to even-par and an earlier start than expected, depriving him of a chance to watch some of the Lions’ Test against Australia. 

But then he awoke even earlier than planned. 

“I haven’t eaten today yet”, sighed Lowry in a press engagement that zapped the last of his diminished energy.

“I tried to get a protein drink down me after eight holes, and I felt like throwing up all over the place. Yeah, it’s been a tough day, but I’m not going to make excuses. I played poorly today and obviously had a bad finish.

“I woke up at 2:30 with cramps in my stomach. I know we have it in the house. [Daughter] Ivy had it a couple of days ago, [wife] Wendy  had it yesterday. Me and [daughter] Iris have it today.

“Honestly, every bathroom I went in and tried to throw up, I couldn’t. It’s just such a bad feeling. I think lack of energy towards the end maybe did me in. Look, I don’t want to make excuses. It is what it is.” 

Lowry had to take a penalty drop on the second hole to make bogey at the first par-five of the day, and from there his putter refused to return any yield on investment, missing birdie looks on seven and eight before holing from 25 feet for par after his brief rest on nine.

He found birdies on 10 and 13 before the round blew up, hooking left off the 14th tee on his way to a triple-bogey seven. Another bogey on seven put the tin hat on things. 

“I felt like I ground it out really well to get to one-under for the day through 13″, he said. “Then a bad shot on 14 and a little bit of a bad break as well.

“The annoying thing for me today is I didn’t get to enjoy today as much as I would have liked. Saturday at The Open in your home country: I should enjoy it a lot more than I did, just because of how I felt.” 

He wasn’t in the mood to talk any more about last night’s penalty, though did say the reaction among his fellow players has been one of sympathy. If there’s an upside to all of this torment, then Sunday surely can’t be any worse. 

Plus, there’s a silver lining to being hit with the virus midway through the Open. 

“It will be gone by the holidays next week. So at least that’s a plus.” 

Written by Gavin Cooney and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.