Shane Lowry made the first eagle in eight years and the 21st in Masters history at the par-4 14th hole when he hit a wedge up and over the trees and into the hole during his third round at Augusta National.
It was the highlight of a frustrating day for Lowry who made a move in the wrong direction, carding a three-over 75 to slip to six-over on a day where he carded six bogeys and one birdie.
“If I could have been myself for ten minutes today, that was the only positive about that. Yeah, this game giveth and it taketh away. Yeah, it was nice,” said the Clara man who lamented a poor performance on and around the greens.
“I knew from the moment you got there, I got a gap. It was just a perfect gap. I knew I had a little bit of room to play with on the left. It was one of those, bit of luck, bit of fortune.
“Obviously I thought after that, if I could make one more birdie and shoot under par, it wouldn’t be a bad day, and it quickly went away from me.
“Yeah, disappointing day, but what can you do? I feel like I’m playing the golf to be there or thereabouts, but, yeah, just not scoring well.”
The Offaly man admitted to feeling like an idiot on the greens all week.
“The goal for tomorrow is to go out and just find something on the greens ahead of next week. It’s been hard this week, and you can beat yourself up about it. I felt like every time I got over an eight-footer today there was 2 feet of break in it left to right down the hill. If you hit it too hard you look like an idiot and if you hit it too soft you look like a bigger idiot.
Lowry was quietly confident about his game heading into the week following four straight top-25s at the Masters including a T3 in 2022 while he also posted two top-5 finishes on the PGA Tour recently.
“I’ve driven the ball well, but I’ve made a lot of silly mistakes. Even that bogey on 17, that’s just stupid really. I was a good but out with a couple of shots today numbers-wise, and you’re putting pressure on yourself to put it close because you don’t feel like you can hole a putt.
“One of those days, but live to fight another day, I suppose.”
Although a first Masters title will have to wait another year at least, the 2019 Open champion wants to shoot in the 60s on Sunday.
“I have no other choice. That’s the thing with this game. Get up tomorrow and go play Augusta National on a Sunday at the Masters. There could be a lot worse things. There’s a lot worse things happening in the world.
“Now I’ve got to go do a bit of practice and try to figure out something and hopefully go out there and shoot a December number tomorrow.
“I’ll have a goal of going out there and maybe breaking 70 tomorrow. If I do that, I’ll be pretty happy.”
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