SHANE LOWRY FIRED three birdies down the stretch to head up the home challenge on the opening morning of the Amgen Irish Open at the K Club.

Lowry, who was named on the European Ryder Cup team earlier this week, had four birdies and just a single bogey on his card for an opening round of three-under par 69.

The Clara native sits three shots adrift of Spain’s Nacho Elvira, who holds the clubhouse lead following the morning wave on six-under par.

Bernd Wiesberger, Daniel Brown and Adrien Saddier all sit a shot off Elvira’s early mark on five-under par.

Rory McIlroy bogeyed two of his last three holes for an opening round of one-under par 71, while Pádraig Harrington carded an opening round of two-over par 74.

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Teeing off on the 10th, Lowry found himself on the back foot early on when he missed a three-footer for par on 14.

That would prove to be his only dropped shot of the day, however, as he cancelled it out with a superb eagle putt on the par-five 18th, leaving himself with the simplest of tap-ins for birdie.

Another birdie followed at the par-five fourth following a sublime up-and-down from the greenside bunker, before another birdie at the sixth moved him to two-under for the day.

With a packed gallery willing him on, Lowry rolled in a 13-footer for a closing birdie at the last to sign for a round of three-under.

A closing birdie for Shane Lowry gets a big roar from the home support, and moves him within two of the lead

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“I played pretty nice,” he told RTÉ Sport afterwards.

“I was one-over thru eight, but I had to remind myself that I was hitting the ball well and I was giving myself chances, I just made a sloppy bogey on one hole.

“Other than that, I obviously finished nice, but I feel like I played really nice today, gave myself some nice chances, hit the ball well, and I holed a couple of putts at the end which was really nice.”

'I gave myself some chances, hit the ball well'

A satisfied Shane Lowry reflects on an opening round of 69 at the Irish Open

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Meanwhile, world number two McIlroy — runner-up here last year — was left to wonder what might have been after two dropped shots late on.

The Masters champion got off to a flyer with a monster 33-foot birdie on the 11th, his second hole of the day, and followed that up with another birdie on 13.

McIlroy took full advantage of the par-fives, with birdies at 16, 18, and again at the fourth, but an out-of-bounds drive on 2 saw him drop another shot.

Bogeys at the seventh and the eighth further sapped his momentum, before a birdie putt at the last cruelly lipped out.

Rory McIlroy's putt on the second hole of his first round at the Amgen Irish Open is a thing of beauty

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Written by Niall Kelly and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won’t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women’s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here.