No trip home to Ireland is now more important in Shane Lowry’s already illustrious career than the flight that arrives into Dublin Airport tomorrow morning (Monday).
Lowry and his family will touch down on Irish soil with Lowry confident of cementing his place, without the need for a ‘wildcard’ pick, in Padraig Harrington’s European Ryder Cup team set to be confirmed on September 12.
He had ideally hoped to be headed to Atlanta, Georgia but instead Lowry will be at home and with now all his energies focussed on the September 9th starting BMW PGA Championship for the European Tour’s flagship event at Wentworth.
It is the final event for 2021 European Ryder Cup team automatic qualification with Lowry dealt a huge lift early in his BMW Championship final round in learning Austrian Bernd Wiesberger had let slip victory at the Omega European Masters. Wiesberger was leading by one coming to the last but found the water guarding the green for a double-bogey, handing a third Tour win to 20-year-old Dane Rasmus Hojgaard.
Lowry now has a week off before heading to Wentworth where a continued strong showing at Tour HQ should reward Lowry with confirmation late on Sunday 12th September of a first European Team cap.
“I am pretty happy with the way I have been playing this season and I think I’ve put my hand up for team selection,” he said.
“I’m in the team now but then Wentworth is going to be a big week and I am looking forward to it. I am going there to compete and it’s a place I have played well in the past and hopefully I can have a good week and cement my place in the team.
“It would be better if I was fully cemented in the team and to be heading to Wentworth just to play my own game but it is what it is. It’s a great position to be in.
“Three years ago when the last Ryder Cup was in France, I was nowhere near making the team but I have given a lot to be in the position I am in now, so I need to grab it by the scruff of the neck and go ahead and make the team.”
Lowry ended his 2020/21 PGA season with a rousing seven-under-par 65 to be sharing 12th place at 13-under as the leading pair of Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay were teeing-off at the nearby first at Caves Valley in Baltimore.
Lowry’s round was bogey-free and continued an impressive and consistent season for the past Open Champion who enjoyed seven top-12s in his 20 PGA Tour events, in a season where he missed just two cuts.
He headed into the final round of the year’s penultimate event out at 10am local time, three hours ahead of the leaders with the Clara golfer making his move with a first birdie in holing a four-footer at the fourth.
He was in a greenside bunker at the driveable par-4 fifth before holing a 21-footer for a second straight birdie and Lowry made it three from four in sending a 12-footer to the bottom of the cup for birdie at seven.
Lowry then muscled his way inside the top-20 with three birdies in succession from the 10th and none better than at the 10th in landing his second shot to 10-feet.
And if there was a shot of Lowry’s round it was at the par-3 17th where, after four straight pars and also finding the water guarding the green a day earlier, he landed his tee shot just short of four-feet and knocked in the birdie to move to seven-under and then T12th at 13-under.
He parred the last and is at the time of writing projected to jump two spots to 45th on the FedEx Cup points table but a dozen spots shy of heading south to Atlanta, GA in the month of September for a first time in his career. Lowry’s best PGA Tour season was a 33rd place post the BMW Championship in the 2018/19 season.
- Full scoring HERE
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