It was a slow moving Sunday for two Irish stalwarts as Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington fired a pair of one over par 72s on the final day of the Andalucia Valderrama Masters.
Lowry dropped five places to a tie for 12th, finishing the tournament just in the red on a one over par total.
He shot out of the blocks with a birdie three at the first but too many errors followed as he mixed three bogeys and just the one other gain at the 4th to be out in 36.
A string of pars followed around the back half and Lowry picked up another shot at 17, a hole he’s birdied three of the four days. But for all his joy on 17, the demons of 18 returned once more, Lowry finishing with a bogey five having doubled the last the two days previous. A “chainsaw” is what Lowry suggested he could use when approaching the tree-lined par-4 next time ‘round.
Still, a top-15 finish on his fifth week on the spin, Lowry was looking at the positives when speaking to Denis Kirwan ahead of a much deserved week’s rest.
“Coming off the golf course the last two days after doubling 18, it’s very tough to get back from there and I did twice, and I got off to a good start today and just made a couple of bad errors. It was one of those days where, honestly, I could have shot anything,” he reflected.
“I made a couple of bad mistakes early on but other than that I gave myself a lot of chances and yeah, bogeyed the last again. I’ve played that last hole in five over for the week so what might have been is about right. But look, a lot of positives. I’m looking forward to the week off. This is my fifth week in a row and for me to play well in my fifth week, I never really play five in a row so I’m pretty happy with that.”
Indeed if it wasn’t for the beautiful layout of Valderrama, Lowry quickly admitted that he wouldn’t have teed up at all at the Sergio Garcia Foundation hosted event.
“I love it. If it was any other golf course I wouldn’t have played this week. I said that to Sergio the other week when I was playing with him. It’s one of my favourite golf courses in the world. I love it around here and I feel I can come and compete around here. If every tournament was on this course I wouldn’t be too displeased.”
Like Shane, Harrington traded five bogeys and four birdies in a similarly stop-start round of golf that saw him finish in a tie for 27th. The Dubliner doesn’t hold Valderrama in the same regard as Lowry and will be a relieved man to be seeing the back of the treacherous Spanish track. However, it’s a cut made after a couple of missed weekends and something on which to build. Onwards on upwards lads.
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