PGA Tour pro gives his putter to fan after miserable day on greens

Earlier this week, Rory McIlroy gave a Facebook follower an old Nike Covert driver he used in 2014.

Thursday, after a horrendous day on the greens at the WGC-HSBC Champions, McIlroy’s Irish mate Shane Lowry decided to give away his misbehaving putter.

Better that than chucking it in some pond a la Rory at Doral last March.

Not that Lowry hasn’t had his McIlroy moments, like when he smashed his putter against a metal fence on the second hole in the second round of last year’s Irish Open. The club was broken beyond repair, so Lowry played the remaining 15 holes with a wedge on the putting surfaces, canned three birdies, made the cut and apologized later for his fit of pique.

Lowry, who won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in August, will play the weekend in China, as well, but that’s because it’s a limited-field, no-cut event in which he was tied for 71st place after 36 holes. His 74-75 (5-over) put him 19 shots behind frontrunner Kevin Kisner.

Lowry obviously took his ire out on that danged putter since his ball-striking seemed fine. He found 10-of-14 fairways and 15-of-18 greens in regulation on Thursday, but only needed an average of 2.067 putts per green.

Friday’s score was one shot worse, but at least he seemed to navigate the new blade he put in his bag a bit more efficiently since his putts per green dipped to 2.