“Look, I'm not making excuses but I didn't feel great,” he explained after a two-over round of 72 that leaves him seven off the lead at the halfway mark. “I had to try and get sick a couple of times, which was not very nice, but it was difficult, yeah.”

Lowry had four bogeys and no birdies on his card through the eleventh but a tablet taken around the turn clearly helped his stomach settle and he recorded a pair of birdies at 13 and 15 from there to minimise the damage to his week's work.

Hopefully I can feel better tomorrow and get out there and try and shoot a score, try and get myself a late as possible tee time on Sunday because that's the plan. If I can get out there in the mix hopefully the crowd can get behind me and I can give it a go.

A double-digit score will be needed if he is to have some sort of chance. It's ambitious, he knows that, and it's not as if this Lahinch links is spewing out birdie opportunities to beat the band.

“Ah lads, it's so tricky. It's one of the trickiest links golf courses I've ever played. The condition it's playing as well, I mean, it's fantastic. The course is growing on me. I'm not saying I didn't like it before but it's one of the really good golf courses we have in this country.

“It's just amazing out there when the sun came out this afternoon, the crowds on the hill, it looked amazing out there. But it's tricky out there. I hit the best drive of the day on the last and I go down and I've to hit a sand wedge out of the rough. They're the breaks you get out there but that's links golf at it's finest.”