LOWRY FIRE FROM PUBS BEING SHUT
at Wentworth SHANE LOWRY is on course to toast another big win at the BMW PGA after the Open champion revealed he is only in Wentworth because the pubs are shut back home.
The world No.31 (above) missed the cut at the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in his first event back in Europe and was ready to take another week off.
Yet his plans changed when Covid-19 rules were tightened in the Republic of Ireland and pubs and restaurants were closed.
And after arriving on Tuesday night, he has shot rounds of 67 and 65 to share the halfway lead with Matt Fitzpatrick (below).
“I probably needed a bit of a break,” said Lowry. “I decided to come late Sunday night when I was watching the news back home and it said we were going to go under a stricter lockdown and you couldn’t really do anything.
“So I am only here because the he pubs are shut! I t texted td my caddie Bo Martin: ‘Do you fancy going this week?’ And I think he was down at the pub having a pint so wasn’t too happy. But I am glad we came. I just love coming back here.”
Lowry, who also brought an old putter with a new grip to England, was joined on 12 under par by Fitzpatrick after the Ryder Cup star also shot a 65 – and then claimed Bryson DeChambeau is making a “mockery” of golf.
The bulked-up US Open champion shot an opening 62 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open and drove the green at the 381-yard seventh hole.
World No.20 Fitzpatrick, who is only 11 stones, said: “It just makes a bit of a mockery of it I think. When he’s on, there’s no point, is there?
“It doesn’t matter if I play my best, he’s going to be 50 yards in front of me off the tee and the only thing I can compete with him is putting.
“I really hope the R&A and USGA will do something about distance. It’s not a skill to hit the ball a long way.”
Asked if DeChambeau will eventually injure himself, the Sheffield star said: “I think so. All that stuff, it will take a toll eventually.”
First-round co-leader Tyrrell Hatton followed his 66 with a 67 to sit one shot back.