Double bogeys are like buses, you wait 305 holes for one and you make them on back to back holes. That proved to be the downfall of Shane Lowry as he managed to finish joint second in a one horse race to suffer more Cognizant Classic heartbreak as Nico Echavarria claimed the most unlikely victory at PGA National.
This time Lowry couldn’t even blame Mother Nature, the Bear Trap didn’t even have to nibble. He beat himself and like his near miss in Dubai in January, it was a painful watch as he somehow finished two shots behind Echavarria on 15-under.
Lowry stood on the 16th tee three shots clear of Nico Echavarria with as many holes left to play. A dismal cut off the tee with a 3-iron led to what was actually a good double bogey save from the green-side bunker before another scuttery strike on the par-3 17th almost found land beyond the water as he carded back to back doubles to fall two shots back.
Credit must go to Echavarria who birdied the 17th to draw level with Lowry before the Offaly man found the water for the second straight hole. Needing to hole out from the green-side bunker on 18 for a playoff forcing eagle, Lowry was unable to get up and down and was forced to sign for a gutwrenching 69 and share second alongside Taylor Moore and Austin Smotherman.
“I’m obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away,” said a dejected Lowry. “What more can I say? That’s twice this year now so far. I’m getting good at it. Yeah, look, what can I say? I played unbelievable all day, and one bad shot on 16 completely threw me for the last three holes. It’s never happened to me before.”
Lowry’s wait for a first victory since 2022 goes on and while he has been unlucky at times in that spell, what happened in Dubai and in Florida strikes a similar tone to the demise of Martin Kaymer. Both major champions who have had iconic winning moments in the Ryder Cup which will etch themselves in the folklore of European golf. But both have forgotten how to win.
“I said to Darren, how do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September in Bethpage and got through that fine. I just felt like it was weird out there; I just really — yeah, just couldn’t feel the club face the last three holes then after my tee shot on 16. It was strange. What can I say? It’s very disappointing. Geez, this is going to be hard to take. Dubai was hard at the start of the year, but this is going to be pretty hard.”
The 2019 Open champion teed off in a share of the lead and it’s fair to say that his putter didn’t let him down. A ten footer on the first for par was a nerve settler and he kept himself in the mix with birdies on the 5th and 9th.
In a field of relative nobodies, it looked like Lowry was announcing himself as the class act as he went five-under for five holes as he backed up the birdie on 9 with a superb eagle on 10, a par on 11 and back to back birdies on 12 and 13.
He was three shots clear and it looked impossible that he would let things slip from here. Heck, Sepp Straka wasn’t even playing this time!
Routine pars on 14 and 15 kept the field at bay, before of all things, two iron shots let Lowry down. Granted they were tee shots but Lowry had led the field in strokes gained approach and given his prowess with irons, to hit two shanks off the tee with irons stunned everybody into silence.
“I beat myself today,” added Lowry. “I have a tee time next Thursday in Bay Hill, and I have no choice but to move on. The hardest thing about today is I’ve never won in front of my four-year-old, and she was there waiting for me. Yeah, I only wanted it for her today. I didn’t want it for — I don’t care about anything else. I wanted it so bad. Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win. I didn’t get ahead of myself, but I felt so comfortable out there, and then yeah, tried to get a lot out of my 3-iron on 16 and did the only thing I couldn’t really do.
Echavarria hung around and took his chance with a bogey-free 66 for a 17-under total to snatch victory.
“It was a blessing today,” said the Colombian. “I didn’t have my best off the tee, but I was able to manage. I had some good breaks. To win out here, sometimes you have to have good breaks if you’re not Scottie Scheffler that hits it every time in the perfect place. So I’m happy with how it went. I’m glad that ball on 17 stayed up, and my caddie told me, hey, it’s over, the ball is safe. You have the easiest putt you can have, straight up the hill, so let’s make this putt, and that was the mindset. It switched right away.”
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