It will require an enormous close to the weekend if Shane Lowry is to contend for an Olympic medal in Paris.
The Offaly man went into the weekend in good spirits, hoping to improve on his performance in Tokyo which saw him finish T22.
He was left frustrated on Thursday evening after an even par round left him off the pace. That frustration was only exacerbated on Friday.
As his teammate Rory McIlroy made an impressive start to his round, Lowry was left struggling and scrambled to another 71 to sit 11 shots off the lead going into the weekend.
He was clearly disgruntled after his round, and somewhat jokingly took issue with RTÉ's Darren Frehill after the reporter brought up a poor bogey from the Irishman on the par-5 third hole.
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Shane Lowry frustrated after another even-par round in Paris
'I've probably given myself way too much to do. I'm playing for pride this weekend' - Shane Lowry is 11 strokes adrift after another even par round in Le Golf National #RTESport #Paris2024 #golf
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📱Updates https://t.co/01ShZjM17C pic.twitter.com/8OeLwwzo7o— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 2, 2024
Shane Lowry was dejected after back-to-back 71s left him 11 shots behind the tied leaders on Friday in Paris.
Speaking to RTÉ after his round, Lowry said he was now merely "playing for pride" and felt he had left himself too much to do.
Today was pretty similar to yesterday. I never really got anything going. It was a bit of a boring round.
Yeah, it's disappointing, but what can you do. I tried my hardest out there and it wasn't good enough. Gave myself a lot of chances and the putter was cold. The leaders are flying away.
I've probably given myself way too much to do. Playing for pride this weekend now. I'll go away now, reflect on the last few days, and try and give it a good go in the next few days. I'll try and get myself as far up the leaderboard as I can.
The frustrating thing is I didn't feel like I was getting bad putts, I was hitting decent putts, I was just struggling to read the greens. That's golf, that's the way it is.
One mistake which epitomised Lowry's tough day on Friday was his bogeying of the par-5 third hole, where many other players had joy with birdies or better as the day went on.
When Darren Frehill brought up Lowry's disappointing score on the hole, the 2019 Open champion was not particularly interested in dissecting it.
Thanks for reminding me of that Darren, it's really...
The one thing you need to do around this course is take care of the par-5s. I played them one over today. If you play them the way you should, it's a different day.
That's golf, I've been playing par-5s really well all year, I've been putting really well the last few months. It's just unfortunate for me that it's deserted me over the past few days.
Shane Lowry will hope to climb the leaderboard as the weekend goes on, though his hopes of claiming a medal may have disappeared after Friday's round.
His Irish partner Rory McIlroy has had a happier run of things on Friday, sitting six shots behind the leaders at the time of writing.
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