Early run lifts Shane Lowry to second place

Shane Lowry looked all day.

The 29-year-old Irishman looked at his name on the leaderboard, looked at his putts roll in and, after Thursday’s opening round of the Masters Tournament, looks at only one player ahead of him.

Lowry found his groove early Thursday, firing off four birdies from Nos. 2-5 and finishing with 4-under 68.

Lowry sits two strokes behind leader Jordan Spieth and is tied for second with Danny Lee.

“I was looking at the scoreboards all day,” Lowry said. “It was there all day. It’s nice. I’d seen Jordan was going quite well at 6-under, which is a great score out there. It was nice to try to get as close as I could to him. Obviously it’s early yet, but it’s nice.”

Lowry missed the cut last year in his first Masters and calmed his nerves this year by putting in 54 practice holes.

“I woke up (Thursday) and did a couple of TV interviews,” Lowry said. “I felt great this morning. Had some breakfast in the house. I’ve got a bit of a crew over, so we just sat around and watched a bit of TV, watched a bit of golf and took it easy. Before I know it was time to come to the course.”

Lowry buried a testy 15-footer to par the first hole, paving the way to the four consecutive birdies.

“That was kind of a nice way to start the day,” he said. “It’s almost nicer than chipping it stiff. From there, I played great today. Didn’t miss many shots. Didn’t miss my targets by much. I managed to hole a few putts early. Really feel like it could have been one or two better at the end, but I’ll take it.”

Lowry smiled when asked about handling the windy conditions Thursday, which played a role in some of the high scores.

“I’ve played in a bit of wind before,” Lowry said, referring to his homeland of Ireland.

Lowry tees off at 10:54 a.m. Friday. He admitted he can’t help but think about winning the green jacket Sunday.

“Every golfer dreams of winning a major,” Lowry said. “I mean, it’s hard not to. I’m sure I’m going to be sitting back tonight thinking at some stage about wearing a green jacket. I’m only human. I’m going to do that.

“But I’ve just got to kind of give myself a slap in the face and get myself back into reality and try to get down to business and keep hitting good shots and see where that leaves me at the end of the week.”