Sungjae Im withdrew from the CJ Cup Byron Nelson before his opening round due to illness, the PGA Tour announced Thursday.
Watch Shane Lowry do the improbable on consecutive holes at The Open
ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The world’s best golfers are having their way with the Old Course at St. Andrews early on Saturday in the third round of the 150th Open Championship — none more so than Ireland’s Shane Lowry.
Lowry, the 2019 Open champion at Royal Portrush, had consecutive chip-in eagles on Nos. 9 and 10, both par-4s. He became the first player in 21 years to have back-to-back eagles in The Open; Phil Mickelson did it on consecutive par-5 holes at Royal Lytham in 2001.
The eagles helped push Lowry into contention for another Claret Jug. After starting the round at 4 under, he was 9 under after 10 holes.
The par-4, 352-yard ninth hole has been the easiest at the Old Course this week. Lowry’s eagle was the 14th on the hole; there also have been 160 birdies. His was the first eagle of the tournament on the par-4 10th, though.
It was only the fourth time this season a PGA Tour player had back-to-back eagles in a round. It is the only time multiple eagles have been recorded on par-4s in a major since the start of 2003 when ShotLink tracking began, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
UNBELIEVABLE SCENES!
Back-to-back eagle twos for @ShaneLowryGolf ?#The150thOpen pic.twitter.com/WF28OPAbow
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 16, 2022
Lowry had made just one career eagle in 548 previous holes at The Open. That came in 2013 at Muirfield.