Harbour Town Golf Links “is in my top five,” said Tom Watson, and Hale Irwin gushed about “that look, that feel, that mystique.” Said Nick Faldo, “it’s got the right charm, the right ambiance,” and when Nick Price came here, he added, “I used every club in the bag because it demands strategy.”
Those Hall of Famers have given way to a new generation of elite players, but the sentiments strike a consistent chord. Many of those on the first page of the leaderboard may be playing well because they feel they’ve already won just by being here.
“I love the island here, such a great event,” said Graeme McDowell, who won here in 2013 and hasn’t missed it since. No surprise, he shot an opening-round 66 this time around, after which he said, “A phenomenal golf course where people are just happy to see you.”
He’s three off the lead (Cameron Young, 63), and so is Shane Lowry, another most personable Irishman and the winner of the 2019 Open Championship, won on Irish turf, no less, at Royal Portrush. At 35, Lowry has stepped out of the shadows of his great friends and fellow major winners, Rory McIlroy and McDowell, and established himself as a global star.
Ranked 30th in the Official World Golf Ranking, he might be playing as nicely as anyone not named Scottie Scheffler.
“Yeah, it’s pretty good,” said Lowry, who can be excused for missing a short birdie putt on his 18th hole, the par-4 ninth, in Thursday’s first round, for his performance – five birdies and 13 pars for a 66 – was part of a long run of good form.
“I felt I was (just) looking out the window at the Honda,” he said. “And I’ve played pretty good since that.”
He speaks the truth. Second to Sepp Straka at The Honda Classic, Lowry continued solid play at THE PLAYERS Championship (T-13), Valspar Championship (T-12), and Masters (T-3). He has broken par in 11 of his 16 rounds, and just once in seven stroke-play tournaments worldwide in 2022 has he finished outside the top 20. That finish, in his so-called off-week, was a T-24.
On a breezy Thursday morning when the Calibogue Sound offered its usual sultry backdrop, the challenge to Harbour Town was as it always has been – figure out how to shape the ball around the trees and don’t get too lofty with your trajectory.
Veterans know that, and sometimes rookies catch on quickly, too.
“You can’t get around here without thinking, that’s for sure,” said Young, who teed off in in the first pairing off the first hole and went bogey-free in his pace-setting 63. “It can get pretty windy out there, so you have to really pick your spots where you think you can be a little aggressive and places where you just can’t.”
Rookie Young had it going early this season with a second at The Genesis Invitational amid a stretch of five straight tournaments in which he never finished worse than T-26. Then came a missed cut at THE PLAYERS Championship, a lackluster World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play – he failed to make it out of group play – and another MC at the Masters.
In other words, Young came into this week seeking consistency. McDowell, Lowry, and others RBC Heritage veterans would tell the kid from Scarborough, N.Y., via Wake Forest, that he’s come to the right spot. Harbour Town Golf Links is saturated is consistency, from the way the residents embrace the tournament to the style of play the course demands.
“The way the course is set up, I like keeping the ball under the trees,” said Lowry. “I think it kind of suits that. You kind of flight it around here and that’s what I do well, keeping it down out of the wind.”
And the 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year has another attribute that serves him well at Harbour Town.
“There are a lot of talents I would like for myself,” McDowell said. “Rory’s driving, Tiger’s mind. (But) Shane’s chipping is right up there for me. Shane, to me, is one of the best chippers of the ball that I’ve seen.”
That is a valuable tool anywhere, but particularly at Harbour Town, where you might feel like you’re playing 18 postage stamps. The small greens are partly why this Pete Dye design generates such a passionate following. Lowry’s steady form continued as he hit 11 of 14 fairways and 14 greens, so his chipping prowess wasn’t tested much in his bogey-free effort. Maybe it’s become ho-hum stuff, but for Lowry, it’s all about keeping himself in the mix as he chases his first win since that Open Championship.
“I just need to be patient and need to keep going,” he said. “Hopefully, I get the breaks on some Sunday when I need it and I can win another tournament soon. That’s kind of what’s just spurring me on is just trying to win. It’s so hard to win out here.”
Consistency is also elusive, even at Harbour Town, which continues to do its part – timeless, unchanging and charming as ever.
