OAKMONT, Pa. – All Shane Lowry could do was laugh.
Battered, bruised and by this point, probably a little loopy, Lowry was well on his way to missing this U.S. Open cut by a mile Friday evening when he picked up his ball on Oakmont’s 14th green with his ball marker still tucked away in his pocket.
“Probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done,” Lowry said, still laughing. “I picked the ball up, had the ball in my hand, turned around to Darren (Reynolds, his caddie) and he basically said to me, ‘What the f— are you doing?’ … By then maybe my mind was somewhere else.”
The blunder resulted in a one-stroke penalty, and Lowry, after replacing his ball and barely missing his 55-footer for bogey, walked toward the next hole at 16 over. He’d end the round a shot worse thanks to a bogey at the par-4 15th, where Lowry’s laugh turned into a few expletives as he tapped in his putt, and with scores of 79-78, Lowry missed just his second cut in his past seven U.S. Open starts.
“I don’t know to be honest,” Lowry said when asked what happened. “I drove it in play a lot yesterday, did what I was supposed to do off the tee, and then just didn’t have my game that I’ve had for the last while. And then I really struggled on the greens yesterday, and the round got away from me out here, and that was it.
“They let it sort of do what they said it wouldn’t do, but that’s all fine, that’s the U.S. Open. I just made obviously too many doubles, too many big mistakes, and then when I got a couple chances, I didn’t convert them. I didn’t really do much right to be honest, other than I drove the ball as good as I’ve probably driven the ball in a long time. So, yeah, weird couple of days.”
The 36-hole cut wasn’t finalized on rainy Friday thanks the the skies opening up with a few groups still finishing up, but it was assuredly to fall at 7 over. Patrick Reed, Hideki Matsuyama and Matt Fitzpatrick will be among those sneaking into the weekend on the number.
Just below them, though, were notable names such as Ludvig Åberg, who was 2 under after two holes Thursday before he shot 72-76; Patrick Cantlay, who went 76-72; Wyndham Clark, who matched 74s both days; and Phil Mickelson, who doubled two of his last four holes to join the unfortunate group at 8 over.
LIV’s points leader Joaquin Niemann was 10 over, as was Dustin Johnson, who won at Oakmont nine years ago, and Bryson DeChambeau, the actual defending champion this week who backed up his opening 73 with a 77 and wasted no time bolting the property.
Justin Thomas, at 12 over, has now missed three straight U.S. Open cuts.
And though Lowry’s 17-over score was easily the most shocking, he wasn’t the only potential European Ryder Cupper who is headed home early. Aberg will certainly be on Luke Donald’s team at Bethpage later this year, as will Tommy Fleetwood, who missed at 9 over. Sepp Straka (11 over) and Justin Rose (14 over) also didn’t come close to sticking around two more days.
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