Shane Lowry’s disappointing end to his PGA Tour season was lost amid the celebrations of American Scottie Scheffler becoming the 12th player in PGA Tour history to break 60.
Scheffler, 24, posted a 12-under par 59 to storm his way into a then share of the clubhouse lead at 13-under par on day two of the Northern Trust on the TPC Boston course. He eventually finished the day two shots behind American Dustin Johnson who incredibly had a putt at the last hole to match Scheffler’s score.
Where DJ narrowly fell short, however, his compatriot soared. Scheffler was having a good round through 13 holes as he was eight-under and quickly moving up the leaderboard before he caught fire and picked up a birdie on four of his final five holes.
Needing a birdie on the par-5 18th to make history, he put his drive just left of the fairway, and left himself 82 feet for eagle with his second shot, his third shot came up four feet short and he completed his round with a birdie putt.
“Yeah, today was obviously a good day on the course,” said Scheffler in what was an under-statement.
“I got off to a really good start. Made a bunch of birdies on the front nine. Had some key up-and-downs at the beginning of the round that kind of got me rolling, freed me up a little bit. Then the momentum just kind of kept going. Never really lost momentum which was nice.
“A lot of times when you’re playing well you can lose that momentum towards the end of the round or have a hiccup here or there. The momentum stayed the whole time and I made a lot of putts.”
Eleven players, including Jim Furyk, have shot rounds of 59 on the PGA Tour but then Furyk holds the record for a 58 on the final day of the 2016 Travellers Championship.
In stark contrast to Scheffler, Lowry needed to make the cut to have any chance of heading next week to Chicago but signed off for a two-under par 69 for a one-under par 36-hole TPC Boston tally.
Lowry was inside the then expected cut-off mark of two-under in the Euro 7.91m event in holing a monster 30-footer for birdie at his 15th hole to go three-under par for his round.
However, a leaked tee shot right at the par-3 eight hole, the 16th of his round, saw Lowry land his second some 16-feet by the flag from where he two-putted for a bogey ‘4’.
The Open Champion eventually missed out on the weekend by two strokes with the cut falling at minus-three.
Lowry entered the event on the back of moving inside the top-125 at last week’s Wyndham Championship and is projected to be credited 123rd on the FedEx Cup standings.
He needed to have made the Boston cut but also be among the leading 70 on the money list to be assured of heading to next week’s BMW Championship in Chicago.
Lowry will now remain in the region and spend the weekend and much of next week with friends in close-by Rhode Island.
“If I wasn’t going to qualify for the Northern Trust, I was planning to spend the week with them so I’ll now go over there anyway,” he said prior to the event.
“It’s not far from where we are this week. If I don’t get in Chicago next week for the BMW Championship, I’ll stay on in Rhode Island. I won’t have to go too far.
“We will play a lot of golf, yeah. I don’t know the golf courses up there but wherever they’ll let us out. Any golf course up there, they’re more than welcome to let us out.”
Also ending his season on a disappointing note was fellow Irishman Graeme McDowell who crashed to third last place with scores of 77 and 72 for a seven-over par total.
McDowell never recovered from dropping three shots early in Thursday’s round and day two began no better in making a mess in taking a first hole double-bogey on day two.
GMac got a ‘flyer’ from a greenside bunker and then proceeded to produce five birdies, including birdies over his closing two holes, but also four bogeys.
McDowell arrived in Boston lying 113th on the FedEx Cup standings and is projected to end his 10th full PGA Tour season at 115th – that will be down two spots on his 2019 standing.
His best year remains 2012 when he ended the year a career high of 42nd on the money-list thanks to two second place results at the Arnold Palmer and U.S. Open.
There was better news for Rory McIlroy who made the cut on the number at minus-three after adding a 70 to his opening 69 to be sitting just inside 60th place, albeit a full dozen shots off DJ’s lead.
Full scoring HERE
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