Shane Lowry will have to wait at least another year to reap vengeance on PGA National as the Offaly man’s hopes of finally getting a victory at the Palm Beach Course ended in a watery grave on the par-3 15th.
Tied for the lead going into the final round, Sunday thunderstorms and a three-and-a-half-hour weather delay meant that Lowry, playing in the final pairing, would only get five holes in before darkness descended, forcing the event into a Monday finish for the first time in nine years where, incidentally, Padraig Harrington had triumphed over Daniel Berger in a playoff.
And those five holes weren’t kind to Lowry, as four pars and a bogey saw him fall three behind Eckroat who’d birdied two of his opening six, and Lowry knew that he’d have to play aggressively when play resumed on Monday since the course was playing soft with virtually no wind. Sadly, the control he’d shown with all facets of his game over the opening three days was sadly absent and he was forced to make good par-saving putts on six and seven before dropping a shot at the eighth to fall four back.
A two-putt birdie on the 10th looked as though it may be the catalyst for a back-nine charge, but he pulled his drive on the next, finding the hazard and eventually made an excellent up-and-down to save bogey, but was now five adrift.
Birdies on 12 and 14 gave him a fighting chance with the tough finishing stretch, but he had to flag hunting and the par-3 15th is one of the most treacherous holes on the course to do so. He knew it was short from the moment of contact, pleading with the ball to “get really lucky,” only to watch it splash down a yard short, leading to a double-bogey five.
To his credit, with all chance of victory now gone, he rebounded to birdie the 16th and 18th holes, ending the week tied for fourth and four behind Eckroat.
The Oklahoman native put on a ball-striking clinic over his dozen holes, birdieing 12, 13 and 16, with his only dropped shot coming on the 14th when he found the greenside bunker and missed a six-footer from par. Other than that, he was never in trouble, and could afford to play the final hole conservatively and still secure a three-shot win over Erik Van Rooyen and Min Woo Lee.
“I drove the golf ball really well and I hit the irons really well,” said Eckroat. “From tee to green I was able to stay out of trouble, and I think that’s the hard part about this golf course is there’s so much trouble, you’re bound to make a double. You’re bound to hit a ball in the water and have a disaster on a hole, but I avoided that all week. Really outside of that, it’s not like I was just going out and making six birdies in a row. It was just very simple, birdieing every once in a while. I just kept the game simple. That was really all.
“Oh, for sure it lives up to the [expectations] — the first win. You can’t really visualize what it will be messing around when you’re a kid on the putting green having putts to win PGA TOUR events and win the Masters and stuff like that.
“But coming into today, I’ve been in this situation before at the Byron Nelson where I had a lead. I didn’t really know what to expect what the feeling would be. I knew finishing second was heartbreaking. I’m not real sure. I still don’t think I’m sure how I feel yet. I know I’m excited. That’s it.”
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