Shane Lowry: I watched it in a hotel room with my Offaly jersey on

As he prepares to head to the famous Pinehurst No. 2 course for the first time in a decade, Shane Lowry feels his game is in even better shape than it was when he won the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2019.

Just over a fortnight ago, Lowry stood over a 12-foot putt with a chance to make history, becoming the first male player to shoot 61 in a major championship.

Lowry had fired into contention over the previous few hours, ramming in nine birdies over the first 17 holes in a remarkable putting display. Alas, his flawless putting touch that Saturday deserted him momentarily and downhill effort trickled by.

Still, that 18 holes placed him in rarefied company, only the fourth player ever to have shot 62 in a major, alongside Brandon Grace, Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele, who accomplished the feat twice, including the previous Thursday.

Lowry had sounded a bullish note in an interview with Greg Allen on Friday evening. In previous majors, notably the most recent Masters, Lowry's putting had been his weak point amid excellent driving and greens in regulation stats. However, the first two days in Valhalla, the reverse had been true. He said that if his long game came good, he could go very low in the third round. Cue the magic on Saturday.

"It was just one of those days," Lowry tells RTÉ Sport.

"You're seeing everything. You're seeing your lines. You've got everything going. It just happened.

"You need to be patient in this game, I always say that. You need to wait for things to happen. On that day, I hit the ball well and any time I got within 30ft of the hole, I felt like I was going to hole a putt. The hole looked pretty big that day.

"What I would say is the greens were beautiful. They were a perfect pace to hole