{"id":384319,"date":"2026-01-22T14:41:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384319\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T14:41:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T14:41:08","slug":"shane-lowry-bounces-back-at-dubai-desert-classic-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/384319\/","title":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry bounces back at Dubai Desert Classic \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Shane Lowry brushed off the disappointment of allowing last week\u2019s Dubai Invitational to slip from his grasp by bouncing back with a solid opening round 70, two-under-par, in the Hero Dubai Desert Classic \u2013 a $9 million Rolex series event on the DP World Tour \u2013 where Italian Francesco Molinari rolled back the years to navigate a way to the top of the leaderboard.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Molinari, the 43-year-old Europe Ryder Cup vice-captain who hasn\u2019t won the DP World Tour since his Open success in 2018, carded a superb seven-under-par 65 to claim the clubhouse lead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Lowry, though, stayed very much in touch in a round that saw the Offalyman produce five birdies and three bogeys on the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club in the UAE where, traditionally, he has often found the going tough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A week on from a double-bogey finish on the 72nd hole of the Dubai Invitational which allowed Spaniard Nacho Elvira to claim a third career win on the circuit, Lowry responded with a round that got him into the top-10 from the first wave of players.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Rory McIlroy, a four-time winner of the Desert Classic, had to show fortitude after a double-bogey seven on the 18th, his ninth hole, to ultimately sign for a one-over 73.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"c-image audio_image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767177708414-69197743-5ee2-4403-b94c-9a36cd6b79cd.jpeg\"\/>Is Ireland&#8217;s Six Nations squad &#8216;safe&#8217;?<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">That seven on the Par 5 18th came after a poor wedge approach spun back into the water hazard guarding the green. McIlroy had three birdies, two bogeys and that double-bogey in a mixed bag of a round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Molinari\u2019s round in some ways came out of the blue, but he explained: \u201c Last week I felt very rusty, so I was hoping it would be very good prep for this week. My putter was the biggest difference to be honest. Made some nice putts. Kept the round going in the middle where I played a couple of iffy holes and made some good pars. \u201c<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">And the Italian credited veteran coach Denis Pugh with getting him back on track, Molinari\u2019s last win anywhere coming in the Arnold Palmer Invitational on the PGA Tour in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time. I\u2019ve changed everything and then I\u2019ve changed back,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m back working with Denis Pugh. That\u2019s been really nice. He doesn\u2019t travel to tournaments anymore but I see him just a day a month at home, and he\u2019s always been great and sort of simplifying stuff for me and clearing stuff out of my mind that doesn\u2019t need to be there. And that\u2019s been the biggest help.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shane Lowry brushed off the disappointment of allowing last week\u2019s Dubai Invitational to slip from his grasp by&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[43452,5904,2623,3027,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-384319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-dp-world-tour","tag-golf","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-shane-lowry","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384319","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=384319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}