Shane Lowry rang up six birdies in a 5-under-par 67 to establish a two-shot lead halfway through the Arnold Palmer Invitational on Friday in Orlando, Fla.
The Irishman stands at 8-under 136 after his stellar second round. He passed 18-hole leader Wyndham Clark, who posted a 71 Friday and is alone in second at 6 under.
Lowry set the tone for his round by sinking a 20 1/2-foot birdie putt at the par-3 second hole at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. He added a 14-foot birdie at the par-3 seventh, his third of the day, and drained a 35-footer for birdie at No. 13.
Lowry was pleased with his final birdie, a 17-footer at No. 18, two holes after his only bogey of the day.
“I hit a great tee shot up 18,” he said. “18 is one of the tougher tee shots on the course. If you miss it, you know you’re going to make bogey or pretty much you probably are. So after playing 16 the way I did, hit a brutal tee shot there, to play 17, 18 the way I did I was pretty happy with myself.”
Lowry, 37, placed third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational last year and is gunning for his first individual win since the 2022 BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour. He and Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy did team up to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last year.
“It’s funny, when you have success especially on a difficult place like this, it doesn’t mean you come here the next year and you have a God-given right to go and play well. You still need to play your game and execute,” Lowry said. “So I was kind of conscious of that.”
Clark reached 8 under for the tournament by birdieing Nos. 1, 10 and 12 but gave most of it back with a double bogey-birdie-bogey stretch at Nos. 15-17.
“The tough thing out here is, you know you’re going to hit some bad shots,” Clark said. “Maybe a water ball or in my case (at No. 15) an out-of-bounds ball, but the tough thing is the greens are getting so firm and pretty borderline on unplayable, then you hit the shot back in play and you’re never done. You could be 15 feet and blow it 6 feet by because it’s so fast. It’s just huge to, any time you get in trouble, to try to minimize any mistakes.”
Collin Morikawa (68) and Canada’s Corey Conners (70) share third at 5 under. Jason Day posted the best round of the tournament thus far, an 8-under 64, to shoot up to 4 under; he’s tied with McIlroy, who shot his second straight 70, and Russell Henley (68).
Day made a 12-foot eagle putt at the course’s famed dogleg par-5 sixth hole, along with seven birdies and a bogey. He said he “did some visualization work” Thursday night to brush off his 4-over-par opening round.
“That attitude adjustment is crucial when you have a bad day and you’re on the outside kind of on the cut line wondering, like, ‘How will you play today,’ that’s always difficult,” Day said. “It’s nice to be able to get off to a good start today and put that round behind you and get back in the tournament.”
Justin Thomas (70), Max Greyserman (71) and Keegan Bradley (72) are tied at 3 under. World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler settled for an even-par 72 and is part of a tie at 1 under.
Because it’s a player-hosted invitational, the $20 million signature event features a 36-hole cut to the top 50 players and ties. Notables who will miss the cut of 4 over par include Norway’s Viktor Hovland (5 over), Max Homa (7 over), Cameron Young (9 over) and South Korea’s Tom Kim (10 over).
World No. 3 Xander Schauffele shot a second-round 71, six shots better than Thursday, to make the cut on the number at 4 over. He is making his first start in two months after rehabbing a rib injury.
–Field Level Media
