SHANE LOWRY DECLARED himself reasonably satisfied with an opening round at the Masters that has left him in a tie for eighth place.

Lowry is among a group of five players who finished at one-under yesterday at Augusta, but the Offaly man had to grind his way back up the leaderboard following a couple of slip-ups during his back nine.

He was within one stroke of the lead when his progress was derailed by a double-bogey on the 10th hole. A bogey followed on the 15th, yet Lowry conjured a late rally with birdies on 16 and 18.

“I felt like I played good,” he said. “I had a couple of bad errors – 10 and 15 were a bit silly – but I was very kind of proud of myself the way I hung on.

“The golf course was – oh my God, I’ve never seen it like that, which was great. I loved it. I’ve always wanted to play Augusta like this in the Masters, firm and fast and putts getting away from you.

“Even though I had a 15-footer on 8 there, a chance for birdie, and you’re just trying to lag it down to the hole. Same on 17. Yeah, it’s not very enjoyable when you’re doing it, but when you look back on it, it’s like, yeah, that was pretty cool.”

Lowry, whose best performance at the Masters came last November when he finished in a tie for 25th, is six shots adrift of leader Justin Rose.

The Englishman, alongside whom Lowry will play again today, holds a four-stroke advantage over Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman.

Although generally pleased with his efforts yesterday, Lowry knows improvement will be required if he’s to be in contention come Sunday.

The 34-year-old said: “I’m disappointed in myself that I played the par-5s in one-over today and I still shot one-under. I need to play them better for the rest of the week if I’m going to have a chance to do something special here this weekend.”

Lowry is due out on the course for his second round at 2.36pm, with compatriot Rory McIlroy – who is five shots further back on four-over – due to tee off at 6.48pm.