Aon Swing qualifier one back at Bay Hill
ORLANDO, Fla. – After being one of the last players to qualify for the Arnold Palmer Invitational, Justin Lower played in the mold of the tournament’s namesake, sprinkling seven birdies on his card en route to a 5-under-par 67 at Bay Hill Club & Lodge on Thursday and a shot off the first-round lead held by Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
Lower (rhymes with Power), a 34-year-old pro who once missed an 8-foot putt to earn his PGA Tour card for the first time, played his way into the field through the Aon Swing 5, one of the pathways into signature events. The top five points earners between signature stretches get spots in the next signature event. Lower rode a careerbest T-3 finish at the Mexico Open at Vidanta two weeks ago into a spot in the 69-man limited field at Arnie’s Place with a $20 million purse and elevated FedExCup points. Lower had to sweat it out on Monday, waiting for David Skinns to miss a 13-foot birdie effort at 18 at the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches before his place in the field this week was secure.
“It was kind of nerve-wracking,” Lower said. “Trust me, I was looking at the tracker pretty religiously there for a little bit.”
Lower has a bit of a connection to Palmer, having won the Arnold Palmer Award in 2010 for NAIA players while competing at Malone University. And then there was the time he volunteered at the 2003 Senior PGA Championship at Firestone Country Club and was standing left of the eighth green when Palmer pulled his shot there.
“It hit some guy standing next to me. I’m from here to that leaf from Arnold’s ball, and he comes up, and he’s like, ‘Did it hit anyone?’ And the guy’s like, ‘Yeah, it hit me.’ And he’s like, ‘It will grow back though.’ And Arnold got a big kick out of that,” Lower recalled. “He kind of looked at it, and it was a tough shot over a bunker, and he goes, ‘Does anyone want to hit this shot?’ And I was, 2003, I was 13, maybe 14 at the time, and I stepped right up, I was like, ‘I’ll hit it.’ And I had my hand on his wedge, and this huge hand out of nowhere just comes back and he grabs me and he’s like, ‘Don’t worry, son, I’ll take it from here.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, go ahead.’ ”
Playing for the first time at Bay Hill a year ago, Lower brought his daughter, Ariana, to her first tournament. He has settled into a routine as a new parent and is flying solo this week. On a warm, sunny day, he took advantage of little wind to speak of in the morning and had his game firing on all cylinders. He wedged to 2 feet at No. 10 and sank a 22-foot birdie at No. 11. Usually a gifted putter, the club has been letting him down for most of the season but not during the first round.
“It’s something I’ve been working really hard on,” he said, noting a 16foot tricky birdie attempt at the fifth hole was the highlight of the round. “It went dead-center perfect speed, so I was pretty proud of that one.”
Lower is tied for second with Hideki Matsuyama, who chipped in from 50 feet for eagle at 16. The Japanese golfer also had a double chip on 15 that led to one of his two back-nine bogeys. “It wasn’t like a difficult lie or anything, just hit it in the air,” Matsuyama said through an interpreter.
Lowry was 5 under in a four-hole stretch beginning at No. 10 and took the solo lead with an 8-foot birdie at 17. Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Lee Hodges and Sahith Theegala all shot 68. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler changed to a mallet putter this week but still missed a putt of less than 4 feet and signed for 2-under 70.