Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup hero at Bethpage Black hasn\u2019t won an individual event since the 2022 BMW PGA but a four-under 68 at Jumeirah Golf Estates gave him something to build on in Dubai.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only thing I didn’t do so far this season is win,\u201d said Lowry, who birdied his first four holes and bogeyed the 12th before finishing with a birdie four.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve got one more chance this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
After winning the Ryder Cup in New York, where his half with Russell Henley ensured Europe would retain the trophy, he puts the season down as a success.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, no matter what happens this week, I’ll sit there at Christmas and I’ll have my Ryder Cup trophy on the table and I think it will be a pretty nice year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut a win this week would definitely be the icing on the cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowry can\u2019t win Race to Dubai points this week as he didn\u2019t qualify by right but thanks to his status as a Ryder Cup player.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s still a massive title at stake and he was thrilled to put a good opening round on the board from the first group of the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got off to a very hot start and I didn’t really do much for the rest of the day,\u201d he said. \u201cNice to birdie the last. It was kind of a frustrating day before that.<\/p>\n
\u201cFour-under is okay around here. I think the scoring is going to be good in the afternoon. The course is there for the taking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had not much wind this morning which was nice. I’d love myself a later tee time tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowry was a shot behind early leader Brandon Robinson-Thompson as Race to Dubai leader Rory McIlroy set off with second-ranked Marco Penge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I did everything pretty well,\u201d he added. \u201cI hit a lot of good putts in the middle of back nine and nothing really fell for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust happens sometimes, and I’m happy I’m going to go back and chill out and watch some golf in the afternoon and go out tomorrow and give it a go.\u201d<\/p>\n
He planned to watch McIlroy play a few holes but admitted there was little he could learn given they play a different game.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, no, no. Rory plays the golf course different than I do. Not many notes I can take on him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup hero at Bethpage Black hasn\u2019t won an individual event since the 2022 BMW PGA but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-260815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}