Shane Lowry didn’t let 11th hole disaster stop march atop British Open leaderboard

TROON, Scotland — Shane Lowry has himself in the driver’s seat to win a second career British Open thanks to a gritty second-round performance Friday at Royal Troon.

Lowry, who began the day one shot out of the lead, shot a 2-under 69 to get to 7-under for the tournament and hold a two-shot lead over first-round leader Daniel Brown, who’s 5-under.

Justin Rose, after shooting the low round of 68 on a blustery day , is tied with Brown, two shots back.

They’re followed by world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, Billy Horschel, who also shot 68, and LIV Golf player Dean Bermester, who are all 2-under.

Among the players who are 1-under are Xander Schauffele, the PGA winner in May, Aussie Jason Day, Patrick Cantlay and Canadian Corey Conners.

It was Lowry, though, who was cruising through his second round until he found inevitable trouble.

He was 7-under as he made the turn and had a two-shot lead over Brown, a relative unknown Englishman who’s playing in his first career major championship this week.

Shane Lowry loses it on British Open cameraman during 11th hole debacle: ‘F–k’s sake’

Lowry, who already has one Claret Jug to his résumé, having won the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush, was in a strong position … until he reached the treacherous par-4 11th hole at Troon, which has the railroad tracks to the right of the fairway.

Lowry handled the hard part, putting his drive up the right side, safely in the rough with not a terrible lie.

That’s when he inexplicably yanked his second shot dead left, across the fairway and into a gorse bush.

“I was in control of my ball, did all the right things for a lot of the round and then when I got in a bit of trouble,’’ Lowry said.

The mess at No. 11 cost Lowry a double bogey, dropping him back to 5-under.

Daniel Brown, Shane Lowry top British Open leaderboard after Round 1

But he rallied with a birdie on the par-5 16th and another on 18 to close with the solo lead.

“I feel like I really finished the round well,’’ Lowry said. “I’m pretty happy with the day. To be leading this tournament after two days, it’s why you come here, it’s why we’re here. The job tomorrow as well is to try to put myself in a position to win this tournament on Sunday, and that’s what I’ll try and do.’’

What Brown is trying to do is become the next Cinderella story at an Open, the next Todd Hamilton or Ben Curtis, two Open winners who won while playing in their first career major — Hamilton winning at Troon in 2004 and Curtis at Royal St. Georges in 2003.

When asked if he’d ever heard of those two players, the 29-year-old Brown said, “Yes.’’

“Were they first-time winners?’’ Brown asked, before saying, “We’ll see. I’m not going to say too much.’’

To his credit, Brown, who had the 18-hole lead at 6-under, hung in and dropped only one shot on Friday, staying near the top of the leaderboard.

This is a journeyman who entered the week having missed seven of his previous eight cuts on the DP World Tour and making it into the field after draining a 20-foot putt on the final hole of 36-hole qualifying.

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“I was trying to kind of rein myself in a little bit after yesterday’s score,’’ Brown said. “Going out there with it being a lot windier, knowing that 72, 73, 74 actually wasn’t too bad. So, yeah, it was a lot tougher.

“It was certainly three or four shots harder.’’

Lowry’s issue on the 11th ironically occurred after he had hit the most difficult shot on the hole — the tee shot — with the railroad tracks just a few yards to the right of the hole.

His tee shot came to rest in the right rough and his second shot went way left into the bush.

“I got a little bit distracted on the right just as I was over the shot, and I kind of lost a bit of train of thought,’’ Lowry said. “You’re so afraid of going right there that I just snagged the club and went left. Then from there, I hit a great provisional. The referee asked me going down, did I want to find my first one, and I said, ‘No.’

“So, I assumed that was OK. Then we get down there, and somebody had found it. Apparently we have to find it then, or you have to go and identify it, which I thought, if you declared it lost before it was found, that you didn’t, you didn’t have to go and identify it.

“I felt like through that whole process of that 20 minutes of taking the drop, seeing where I could drop, and I felt like I was very calm and composed and really knew that I was doing the right thing.

“To be honest, I was happy enough leaving there with a 6. It was not like it wasn’t a disaster. I was still leading the tournament.’’

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