Lowry escapes with brilliant par from the beach

Shane Lowry produced one of the best pars of the day during the second round of the US PGA Championship after finding the beach with a wayward tee shot at the 16th.

Lowry followed up a first round 73 with a one under par 71 on the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island on Friday, but even he admitted that his round was highlighted not by birdies but instead by a brilliant par save at the 608 yard par five.

"Today didn't play as good - apart from a little trip to the beach, I didn't really hit many bad shots," said Lowry.

"You kind of put it in good position, hit it in the right places and manage to have a few nice up-and-downs. It's just so hard out there. Oh, my God, like it's -- especially when you tee off on 10 and you stand on the 14th tee, there's no let-up for ten holes, nine or ten holes. It's difficult. I'm happy to be on level par. I'm five or six behind. I feel like I'm in a good place going into the weekend."

Elaborating on his trip to the beach, Lowry said he had previously seen a picture of Rory McIlroy there in a practice round and wasn't sure how to get there until he hit it over there.

"It's funny, I seen a picture of Rory out there in the practice rounds, and I was trying to figure out where it was," he said.

"Then I obviously found out where it was because I didn't know -- I obviously knew the sea was out there that side, but I didn't know what was out there. Look, I got very lucky there because where I hit my provisional wasn't very good, either. It could have been anything."

After finding his ball on the beach, Lowry was granted relief from a little fence, and managed to pitch his ball 83 yards back in to the fairway. From there, the Irishman advanced his ball up the fairway before getting up and down from 80 yards, holing a putt from 20 feet.

He explained: "There was a little fence, and it's a movable obstruction, so for your relief, yeah, it was standard enough.

"I got lucky and managed to make an unbelievable par. It was one of those where when I found my ball and was able to get relief and got it back in play, it was like make a 6. A 6 doesn't kill you. On this course if your mistakes are bogeys, you'll do okay, because you will give yourself a few chances. But I just wanted to try and make bogey or par and move on to the next, and I managed -- I did."