Shane Lowry two off lead at Memorial Tournament

Shane Lowry was two off the first-round lead at the Memorial Tournament after a fine opening 69 in Dublin, Ohio.

The Offaly man was one over at the turn but hit four birdies on the back nine, including on 18, to finish three under and in a share of 11th.

Rory McIlroy was one shot further back after making five birdies but also dropping three shots.

Seamus Power was level-par 72, having posted three birdies and a double bogey from 14 to 17.

Cameron Smith, Cameron Young, Davis Riley, Kyoung-Hoon Lee, Luke List and Mackenzie Hughes all shared the lead after shooting 67, with four players on 68 and 10 alongside Lowry.

Live leaderboard

Former champion Hideki Matsuyama was disqualified midway through his first round due to an illegal marking on one of his clubs.

Matsuyama, who earned the first of his eight PGA Tour wins at the 2014 Memorial Tournament, was disqualified from the Jack Nicklaus-hosted event after painted lines were discovered on the face of his three wood.

If marked the first time the former Masters champion has been disqualified from a PGA Tour event.

PGA Tour senior tournament director Steve Rintoul said images of the club were posted online and his team only learned of them after Matsuyama had used it on the first tee. Had he not used the club, he could have kept playing.

Rintoul said his team approached Matsuyama on the second hole to ask if he had used the club and the former Masters champion was forthright about it.

"The material was applied to the face for alignment for Hideki to set the ball inside the circle of the lines. That's actually the center of the face," Rintoul told reporters.

"And applying a small, discrete dot with a Sharpie (marker) to help you with alignment is fine. We have players who do it all the