Shane Lowry fumes over Troon set-up as weather dents his Open dream

As Billy Horschel carded a sensational two-under 69 in driving rain and cold at Royal Troon to lead the 152nd Open Championship by a shot from a sextet of players — South African Thriston Lawrence (65), Americans Sam Burns (65), Russell Henley (66) and Xander Schauffele (69) and English pair Justin Rose (73) and Dan Brown (73) — Lowry was gutted to go from a three-shot lead to a three-shot deficit over the last 14 holes.

“It was hard,” said Lowry, who was three clear after a birdie at the fourth, but then double-bogeyed the par-three eighth after finding the Coffin bunker and bogeyed the 11th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 18th as the putts failed to drop.

“Playing par threes hitting drivers is not much craic,” he said of the 238-yard 17th, where he found a deep bunker with a driver but made a brilliant par before dropping a shot at the last after carving his drive into rough and his second into the grandstand.

With the R&A and the USGA planning to limit how far the ball flies, he scoffed: “Roll the ball back?”

Lowry’s annoyance was understandable, but while he felt his double-bogey at the eighth was key, he could not deny he had a poor day on the greens and was ranked 77th of 80 players for strokes gained putting.

“Obviously, there is no doubt but that I am going to go out there tomorrow thinking I can win the tournament, but it is just hard right now,” he said.

“You have to give me a bit of leeway. Ten minutes ago, I had a (30-foot) putt for par on the 18th green, and I’m here now talking to you guys, trying to figure out how I had a 77 in my own head.

“This game is just hard, and you nearly feel hard done by for playing well the first two days in those conditions.

“It was honestly brutal. I guess for me, the eighth hole was a killer really. Get par there and you can still shoot three or four-over from there and I would still be leading the tournament.

“I just pulled my wedge shot there. I don’t really know what to say. It was a grind. It wasn’t much fun.

“Driver-driver into 15, 16 was playing ridiculously long, driver into 17 and then you’re standing on the 18th tee wondering if you can actually hit the fairway. It’s 230 yards to the fairway.

“Bear in mind my driver pitched to about 220 yards on the 17th hole. It’s not much fun out there.”

Still believing he is in the tournament, Lowry said: “Yeah, I am. But it’s hard now. I really wanted to hole that putt on the last.”

Horschel carded a brilliant 69 to set the target at four-under as Lowry’s playing partner, the unheralded world number 272 Brown, made a double bogey six for a 73.

“I knew Billy made bogey and knew Dan had obviously made double and I would only be two back,” Lowry said.

“At three back, you are still right in the tournament, but it is going to take me a couple of hours to get over today. I am obviously very gutted now but I have a job to do tomorrow and a chance to win this tournament.”

He added: “It is just hard because I felt I played a lot of unbelievable golf today and hit some great iron shots. I just didn’t hole the putts early on when I had chances and then I missed a few par putts.

“On the way in I felt I couldn’t make a par. Honestly, it was hard. It is hard when you are in that situation but it is what it is.”

Pádraig Harrington had a chance of getting to the fringes of contention in heavy afternoon rain after he raced to the turn in two-under.

But while he came home in two-over and carded a 71 that left him outside the top 20 on three-over, he was still backing the Offaly man to make a final-round challenge.

“Shane just has to realise that no matter what happens today he will have a great chance of winning tomorrow afternoon so as tough as it gets on the back nine if he plays it great then he will have a lead and if it eats him up in some way he will still have a chance tomorrow afternoon,” said Harrington who is tied for 25th on three-over. “I would love to be in Shane Lowry’s shoes at this moment.”

Lowry was on the eighth at time but as the rain failed to ease off and the cold west wind, which was only 15 mph stopped the ball flying, he ended the day in solo ninth on one-under.

World number one Scottie Scheffler shot 71 to sit alone in eighth on two-under and had an even tougher day on the greens that Lowry.