Shane Lowry carded a 71 to retain a share of the lead at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. It is his first time playing back-to-back under-par rounds (66-71) in his sixth start in the event.

“It’s getting a little bit harder,” said the Irishman. “I hit some nice shots today that finished over the greens. The greens are definitely firming up. They’re fast around the holes. Getting crusty. And we were off early. Yeah, it’s obviously a little bit harder today, but there’s still a score out there if you play the perfect golf. But, yeah, it takes perfect golf out there to shoot a good score.

“I’m obviously playing well and, yeah, I played well these last two days. Like, I feel like I probably should have shot better than 1-under today. I’ll take it. If you had asked me at the start of the day, I probably would have taken it. This course you see with those scores, it can get away from you quite quickly. I said it here yesterday, it’s the type of course where you get on a run, you feel like you can birdie every hole, but then it starts getting away from you, you feel like you’re never gonna make a par out here, so, yeah, it’s that type of course.”

Lowry was joined in the lead by five players on Friday. Six 36-hole co-leaders is the most in Arnold Palmer Invitational history by two (4/2010). They have all, except Russell Henley, won major championships since 2019.

Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama carded a 70 to move into the co-lead and was joined by Americans Henley (69), Brian Harman (68), Wyndham Clark (66) and World number 1 Scottie Scheffler who eagled the par-5 12th and shot three consecutive birdies from the 15th to close with a 67.

“I think I just did a good job of staying patient, and just a great finish, I would say. I think I was even for the round going into 12, and would have been 5-under my last seven, so yeah, just a really good finish,” said Scheffler.

“I would say that I’m proud of, the last couple days, getting off to poor starts, missing short putts on No. 11 today and yesterday, and kind of sticking to my process and doing a really good job of not letting things bother me. That’s kind of been my main goal this week, not trying to be perfect, just go out there and hit solid putts and see what happens.”

Related: Matteo Manassero tops leaderboard heading into the weekend

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