It’s a sign of his consistency over the past 12 months that Shane Lowry will be disappointed with a top-10 finish in a PGA Tour Signature Event, but after leading the event through 36 holes, that’s exactly what the Offaly man will be feeling.
The damage was done on Saturday and on the back-nine in particular, with two double bogeys in the space of four holes that left him six shots adrift.
A two-under-par 70 on the final day was a good response to the disappointment of moving day, but even then, he had his chances to put pressure on the leaders. Lowry began his quest for a final-round charge with an incredible approach from the fairway bunker on the first to set up a four-foot birdie putt that he duly dispatched, but he bogeyed the second and failed to birdie either of the two par-5s on the front, though he did pick up another stroke on the fifth when he holed out from a greenside bunker.
Another birdie on 10 got him to -2 for the day and he had the chance to move to within three of the lead when he faced a 13-footer for birdie on 12 but the putt dove left at the last second and you could see the frustration in his body language.
By the time he birdied the 16th to move to -7, he knew he had run out of holes and he missed a five-footer for par on the 17th to drop back to -6 for the week. Still, he picks up a cheque for $700,000 for finishing solo seventh, and remains in 10th place on the FedEx Cup rankings.
McIlroy too would’ve fancied his chances after round two as he was just four shots back in a share of fourth, but he lost ground by carding his first over-par round of the week and, having put a new driver and fairway woods in the bag for the week, opted to revert back to his original gear for the final round.
Like Lowry would shortly after, he too birdied the first but failed to build any momentum and made the turn at level-par after bogeying the par-4 eighth. Two birdies early in the back nine had him on course for a high finish all the same, but bogeys at 15 and 18 dropped him back to level for the day and he closed out the week tied for 15th at -3.
“Yeah, sort of going back to what I’m comfortable with,” he said of his decision to ditch the new equipment for the final round. “I tried new woods for the first three days, didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to. So, yeah, I went back to my old stuff today.”
He was able to see the funny side of it, despite the disappointment of knowing he’d let the opportunity to win a second Arnold Palmer Invitational slip too easily from his grasp.
“Yeah, I led strokes gained off the tee in both Pebble and Torrey, so it was a really good idea to change,” he joked. “Yeah, so — and then, like yesterday, I lost strokes off the tee, which is the first time I’ve done that in a long time. Yeah, just went back to what was familiar and what’s comfortable.”
“Yeah, I felt like I was just scrambling all weekend,” he added, “just trying to save par and pick up the odd birdie here and there.”
He’s now committed to keeping the old equipment until the Masters is over at least, and he’s undecided if he’ll add another event to his schedule in between next week’s Players Championship and the Masters which begins on Thursday, April 10th.
“Yeah, probably,” he replied when asked if next week would be the determining factor. “I’ll see how next week goes and then, yeah, just sort of see what I feel like and what I think I need. But, yeah, nice thing is I don’t have to enter until the Friday before.”
He did say that he’d take a couple of scouting trips to Augusta National prior to the tournament, and that he is expecting a slightly different course due to the damage caused by Hurricane Helene.
“Yeah, I think it’s just going to be a little bit different this year, just with there’s some areas of the course that are maybe a little thinner tree-wise, just with the hurricane that rolled through,” he said. “16’s a new green. So, yeah, I’ll probably go up there once or twice beforehand.”
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