Shane Lowry said it would be one of the great days of his career if he were to beat Rory McIlroy in the Match Play Championship.

He just didn't want that to be the end of his week.

Lowry became a footnote in the 15-year history of this most fickle golf tournament on Friday when he became the first No 64 seed to make it into the third round. It's difficult enough to knock off the No 1 player in the world. The difficult part is to come back to earth and keep playing golf, and the Irishman did that with a game that was as brilliant as the sunshine on Dove Mountain.

He made five birdies in 13 holes, the last carrying him to a 6-and-5 win over Carl Pettersson.

"I went out for dinner with the lads, my caddie and a few other guys, and I found it quite hard to sleep last night," Lowry said. "I was on such a high. There was people, lots of phone calls and texts and stuff. But I managed to get to sleep and get a few hours.

"Got up this morning, spoke to my coach for quite a while on the phone and just reminded myself that it was only the first round. The second round is today and just go out and look forward to it and enjoy every minute of it, and that's what I did."

Two days after dispatching one Irish friend, Lowry was set for another on Saturday.

Next up is Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, who is in the same management stable as Lowry.

McDowell, Lowry and McIlroy had dinner together on Tuesday night at a rustic outpost called Lil Abners Steakhouse, and they planned to go back on Thursday night - minus McIlroy, who is back in Florida.

(China Daily 02/24/2013 page7)