By Kent Gray
For the second successive day Shane Lowry had a putt for history at the 14th Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship presented by EGA. Like Wednesday’s shot at The National Course record, Thursday’s stab at matching Martin Kaymer’s 36-hole record came up just short, unlike the early season expectations of the Irishman which have been well and truly exceeded – regardless of what happens from here.

On a day when the $7 million Rolex Series event very nearly lost its defending champion Tommy Fleetwood, witnessed American drawcard Dustin Johnson wielding a freezing cold putter and the “Iceman” Henrik Stenson melt in a rare missed cut, Lowry kept his cool – and the lead.

Recovering from two bogeys in his first three holes, the 31-year-old carded a two-under 70 to go with Wednesday’s course record equalling 62.

It left Lowry at -12, a shot clear of Louis Oosthuizen and the former Open champion’s South African compatriot Richard Sterne. Lee Westwood lurks ominously a shot further back, Ian Poulter (-9) is a sleeping giant, almost literally, while everyone is waiting for American major specialist Brooks Koepka (-7) to blitz it like, well, Brooks Koepka after ho-hum (by his exalted standard) rounds of 67-70.

Others will inevitably threaten and it won’t surprise anyone if it is Koepka or even Johnson, the latter having eight shots to make up. For mere mortals that might be too much but remember the world No.3 has played the last two weekends in Abu Dhabi in a combined 18 under par and just needs a little co-operation from his putter for his Falcon trophy bid to take flight again.

But Lowry knows he just has to keep on keeping on after making the best of a bad start Thursday when he hit some “pretty horrendous” shots early on.

“Yeah, I’m really happy with that,” he said of his 70.

“I knew today was going to be a bit of a weird day after shooting such a low score yesterday. I just tried to go out and play like I played.

“I struggled at the start. I hit some really rocky shots, didn’t feel too confident but I made a great up-and-down on the 3rd hole for bogey and I think that kind of kick-started me. I pretty much was hitting the ball decent after that for the rest of the day. Gave myself a lot of chances. I didn’t convert as many as I would have liked but I’m pretty happy to shoot 70. To be in the lead going into the weekend is always nice.”

Lowry’s ball striking on the par 3s has been particularly impressive with six birdies in eight attempts thus far, setting up a tasty moving day.

“Yeah, look, just sort of the names behind me, it’s great. To be going out playing with Louis tomorrow [12:50pm], I’ll enjoy that and hopefully I can go out and make a good show of myself.”

Stenson has played every edition of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship but he won’t play this weekend, his bid for an elusive Falcon cut short by rounds of 70-72 that left him at -2 and one stroke shy of the cut.

Fleetwood (69-72) made it on the bubble but not without a few 36th hole palpitations when he narrowly avoided water off the tee and made the requisite birdie via a gritty up and down, banking his second shot from the sand off the grandstand guarding the left hand side of the green.

“It was nice to get one in,” the two-time defending champion said of the nervy 10-footer he holed to survive.

“My putting was pretty awful today but you can’t stress enough the importance of just making cuts anyway in professional golf. That’s the game. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at. I’m very happy that I’ve gotten another two days of golf.”