*Photograph: Joe Buckley
HIGH-PROFILE visitors landed in Doonbeg as play continued in the Amgen Irish Open where Shane Lowry remains at the top of the leaderboard following the third round.
Lowry heads into the final round on the cusp of winning his second Irish Open after producing a third round 65 to hold a four-shot overnight lead in Doonbeg.
He leads by four strokes from Danish left-hander Jacob Skov Olesen on 16-under par.
US President Donald Trump watched Lowry on the eighteenth. Marine Force One began to touch down in Doonbeg shortly after 3pm leading to a five minute pause of play.
Outside of Lowry, Tom McKibbin is best of the Irish, he’s on seven-under-par overall after a Saturday 68, good enough for tied-fourth heading into Sunday. Liam Nolan also carded a 68 to sit two-under-par overall, tied 26th while Rory McIlroy’s poor week continued as he slumped to a 74 which leaves him two-over-par overall.
Seventeen years on from his maiden Irish Open success as an amateur, Lowry said the prospect of winning in Doonbeg “would mean a lot” but stressed, “this evening I’m going to try to not think about it. I’m going to talk to people around me, have a nice evening, hopefully get some sleep and get out there tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully the crowd gets on my side and I can put on a good show for them again and shoot a good score and do what I’m supposed to do”.
He added, “I’m feeling good. I felt great out there. I really did feel good out there. I felt like I was just staying in shot by shot and doing my thing. Yeah, look, it’s obviously going to be, it’s a big day for me tomorrow. I’m going to be leading my home tournament and it would mean the world to knock this one off. So I’m just going to have to put my head down, get back to work whenever my tee time is tomorrow, and give it a run”.
On the prospect of an Irish winner, Rory McIlroy commented, “I think there’s a great buzz around the tournament because Shane’s up there and leading. So, yeah, hopefully he keeps it going, that would be great for obviously Irish golf”.
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