Ireland's world number 57 looks set to make the cut for the first time in three attempts after carding an excellent one-under-par 69 on a links course in Washington State that gave the 28-year-old from Clara, Co. Offaly, all the golfing comforts of a friendly round of golf at home.

Lowry is set to begin his second round today at 4:39pm Irish time, just four strokes off the lead shared by Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson, having secured a major psychological boost by going under par in the opening round of a championship that is regarded as the toughest examination of a golfer in the calendar.

“To be honest, if you'd have asked me going out I'd have probably taken par because you've no idea what the scoring's going to be like,” Lowry said following his twilight finish on America's Pacific coast in the wee small hours of the Irish night.

“But under par in a US Open, I said it to (caddie) Dermot (Byrne) on the last green, I had a tricky downhill 25-footer, it would have been nice to hole it but it's just kind of one you just cozy down and if it drops in it drops in.

“I'm very happy with under par. Under par in a major is always good.”

Lowry played some excellent golf in his opening round of four birdies and three bogeys, hitting 14 of 18 greens.

“I played lovely today,” he said. “If anything, being brutally honest, I'm still not that comfortable on the greens but I picked my lines and I committed to some putts today and I actually hit some good putts towards the end as well. But off the tee and my iron play was pretty good.

“I think I hit one pretty average iron shot but the rest was pretty good, so I'm looking forward to the next few days now.

“Hopefully I can get out in the morning and the course will be a little bit softer and we can hit it a little bit closer because it's quite hard to get the distance control right out there.

“Patience is massive. I might go out and get off to a bad start, I might go out and birdie the first three holes, you never know. You just have to take what comes on the chin and keep going and see what happens after that.”

“Fresh greens in the morning and it looks like a bit of rain so hopefully there's a bit of moisture in it and hopefully we get a bit of cloud cover again and it stays a little bit moist.”

That would certainly feel like home for Lowry, who won the Irish Open as an amateur on the links at Baltray in filthy weather. The Irishman said he almost forgot he was playing in a US Open but the fact he is a fan of this course by the shores of Puget Sound is as essential as maintaining an emotional equilibrium.

“It's important – you're going to get some bad breaks, you're going to hit some bad shots and it's important not to get down on yourself. So you've got to really stay patient. I do like the golf course, I love the colour of it, it's similar to what we play in the summer back home. Things like that that you're familiar with always makes you feel a little bit better.

“I was out there today and I know it's a US Open but it felt like I was just playing a game of golf and I felt really in control of myself. It was good.

“I really enjoyed myself, and that's the main thing.”