Shane Lowry played beautiful golf through his first 36 holes at Royal Troon Golf Course, host of the 152nd Open Championship. He entered play Saturday holding a two shot lead at 7-under with only a handful of players even under par.

Then his third round happened.

The Irishman actually played well early on, playing the first seven holes at 1-under par. Then the rails fell off. Lowry made double bogey on eight, a harbinger of things to come.

He bogeyed holes 11, 12, 14,15 and 18 to close out his day. After signing for a 6-over 77, suddenly Lowry found himself staring up at eight players on the leaderboard, three off the lead.

The 2019 Champion Golfer of the Year, normally in bright spirits regardless of play, had a difficult time maintaining that composure.

“…It's just hard right now. You have to give me a bit of leeway. Ten minutes ago I had to putt for par on the 18th green, and I'm here talking to you guys now trying to figure out how I shot 77 in my own head,” Lowry said visibly frustrated.

“Like, yeah, this game is just hard, and now you feel how hard it was for playing well the first two days in those conditions. Honestly, it was brutal.”

The conditions for this year's Open Championship have been downright nasty. That has left numerous players including Tyrrell Hatton to  voice their displeasure with the course setup. Lowry doubled down and did not mince words.

“You'd have to question why there wasn't a couple of tees put forward today, to be honest. I think 15 and 17 — like 15 is 500 yards playing into that wind, it's — yeah, they keep trying to make holes longer, yet the best hole in this course is about 100 yards.”

Lowry still has a shot at winning his second career major. But it is going to take an excellent round if he wants to catch leader Billy Horschel or any of the other studs ahead of him.

Shane Lowry is slated to tee off at 5:45am ET Sunday morning.