Shane Lowry has envisioned Rory McIlroy slipping a Green Jacket onto his shoulders on Sunday night and he believes he has what it takes to at least have a fighting chance at the 90th edition of the Masters.
Standing under the big oak tree outside the Augusta National Clubhouse, Lowry glances to the outdoor table and chairs glistening in the hot afternoon sun and manifests himself and McIlroy sipping on a beer watching the world go by. The job is half done, now he feels he must hold up his end of the bargain.
“I’d love to be coming back here forever, I’d love to be 70 years of age and sitting out on that lawn with Rory, having a drink,” he smiled. “We have talked about that. I would love to be that person, I’d love to be going to the Champions Dinner every year. There’s a lot that comes with it and you try not to think about it too much.
“I always said I’d love to be the first Irishman to win the green jacket, that obviously can’t be the case anymore, so the second would be pretty nice. Where would it go on my pedestal of what I’ve done? It would be right up there, with the Open and the Ryder Cup. They are different in their own way but it would be very special.”
Lowry has played some fabulous golf this season but has been wounded with the bitter sting of defeat after near misses in Dubai and at the Cognizant Classic – the latter of which came before back to back missed cuts and a top-30 finish which brings him to Augusta under the radar.
Often comfortable with accepting the fact that McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and co are better than him, he is determined to prove that he can roll with the punches this week if he brings his A-game. A brilliant driver and iron player, Lowry fits the bill to be a Masters contender.
“It’s a golf course and a field of amazing golfers, if I play my best stuff then I can give it a run around here, there’s no doubt. I showed that a little bit last year and in 2022, when it comes down to it you have to round the back nine on Sunday and do some really good stuff. I feel I have what it takes, but does that mean I will win? No. Do I have belief I can give it a run around here? Yeah, obviously. ”
Perhaps it is the noggin in between the two ears that will determine success or an eleventh straight frustrating drive down Magnolia Lane at tournaments end. Lowry stressed the importance of acceptance which probably rules him out of completing the career grand slam of “f**k this place” if things aren’t going his way this week.
“I was talking about this with Neil [coach] and Darren [Reynolds] yesterday, there’s certain times you are standing at the top of the hill on 15 and you have to pull the shot off. You have to go for it and if it’s your year you’ll pull the shot off, and if it’s not then maybe you won’t. There are certain shots out here that you have to take on, and if it’s your time to shine it happens, if it’s not it doesn’t. It’s a golf course where the margins are really, really small, where good shots can get punished, and you don’t get away with too many bad shots. So, yeah, a lot of patience but a lot of acceptance that needs to happen this week.
“You’re going to hit some good shots this week that won’t get the rewards you feel they deserve. It’s maybe how the season has gone for me, I’ve had to accept a lot of good golf and hard work and not much reward for it. If I can go out there and commit to every shot, same old golf cliches really isn’t it, take it on the chin, one shot at a time.”
Lowry previously admitted that he dwelled too long and allowed the disappointment of his Cognizant collapse to fester.
“I felt the season was going really well up to the 16th hole at the Cognizant. Then it was a bit of a disaster from there. If I am being comp;etely honest, I feel Thursday at BH came around very quickly. I really struggled there, then all of a sudden you’re at the Players and I didn’t cope with it very well that week. I probably could have done with a week off after that Cognizant to let the dust settle and get back on the horse, but the Players into Houston…I felt I played really well at houston. Houston if not a golf course that suits my game at all, it’s a course that I don’t think I can win around. You put yourself in the PGAT field and the majority of courses I feel I can win around, but that course is for the long hitters. That will always be the case, so I feel I put in a good performance there.
“Practice has been going well, so it has been a decent enough season so far I could be standing here with two wins and having a different conversation, whatever happened that Sunday at Cognizant, if I get the opportunity again hopefully I’ll have learned something from that.”
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