Golf

Promising recent form has Shane Lowry ready to give his all at the Masters

Offalyman says he is not at Augusta ‘to make up the numbers’

Ireland's Shane Lowry with caddie Darren Reynolds on the 10th hole during a practice round prior to the 2024 Masters at Augusta National golf club in Georgia. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Ireland's Shane Lowry with caddie Darren Reynolds on the 10th hole during a practice round prior to the 2024 Masters at Augusta National golf club in Georgia. Photograph: Andrew Redington/Getty Images
Philip Reid
Mon Apr 08 2024 - 21:18

If you were to take a couple of snapshots from Shane Lowry’s nine holes of practice on Monday you’d think he was conniving to manage expectations. On the Par 5 13th, his approach – in the air – looked like it would offer up an eagle putt but instead spun back off the green into the water. On the 18th his drive was pushed right into the trees. His next found the front bunker. Hopefully it was all a case of the Offalyman playing the role of the great deceiver ahead of this latest – his ninth – appearance in the Masters.

For in truth Lowry – now 37 years of age and with a trophy cabinet that includes a Claret Jug, a WGC trophy and a couple of Rolex series silverware reminders of the path he has travelled – has matured from a player who once thought of Augusta National as a “semi-intimidating” course to one where he has invariably found a way to walk off the 18th with a wide smile.

“I’m not here to make up the numbers,” said Lowry. Quite right too.

Where Lowry’s first experiences of the course led to three missed cuts in his first four Masters tournaments the pendulum has swung his way. Patience. Learning. Maturity. These factors have been woven into his fabric to the point where he finished third in 2022 and was in the top five entering the back nine of last year’s final round before ultimately slipping to tied-16th. Only three players have had top-25s in each of the last four Masters. One is Scottie Scheffler. Another is Hideki Matsuyama. The other is Lowry.

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Lowry confined his Monday’s work on the course to nine holes with Erik van Rooyen. Monday is Monday and for any player it is only what happens with scorecard in hand that truly matters.

Shane Lowry hitting his second shot on the 10th hole during a practice round at Augusta National. Photograph: Andrew Redington
Shane Lowry hitting his second shot on the 10th hole during a practice round at Augusta National. Photograph: Andrew Redington

Standing under the big tree outside the clubhouse and with laughs and chuckles occasionally interrupting his own words, Lowry said: “We have got a little bit of time between now and Thursday. I certainly feel like, if it comes my way Saturday afternoon or Sunday I could be up to challenge but we will see what happens.”

Lowry paid an advance visit to Augusta for a two-day reconnaissance early last week before doing more of his preparations at home in Florida, where the speed of the greens on The Bear Club ran at 14 on the stimpmeter. “You come here and you’re not scared of what you’re putting on.”

That family move to Florida was necessary in terms of pursuing his career dreams. Last week proved a case in point. The contrast with the weather at home last week and what he could practice in down in Florida was chalk and cheese.

“I just think in general it was important to my career to move. I wouldn’t say that I really wanted to fully do, but I felt like I had to, and luckily Wendy was okay with it. We have a lovely life down in Florida. But it’s not Ireland, and we do miss home at times.

“The weather’s not great at home and if you were in Ireland for the last week trying to prepare for the Masters I can’t imagine it would be a great place to be. It’s not really just golfers or sports people. In any job certain things come along and you have to leave home to do it, and that’s what we did. We moved fulltime-ish in 2018. Hopefully for another few years I’m competing at this level for awhile.”

Certainly Lowry’s form of recent months – despite no further win since his BMW PGA in 2022 – has been promising, most especially on the Florida Swing where he was fourth in the Cognizant Classic and third in the Arnold Palmer Invitational where he was in the heat of contention for most of the business parts of those tournaments.

“There’s no two ways of looking at it, I am playing nicely, and I’m very happy where my game is at. But there’s no God-given right to go out here and compete and play well. You just have to do everything you think is right, and go out there Thursday and give it everything. I’ll prepare as best I can over the next few days. Yes, my results have been nice of late. I’ll go out there and give it everything I have from Thursday to Sunday and hope it’s good enough.”

With designs on a green jacket, as everyone has, Lowry is inclined to keep a lid on expectations just a little. “I think it’s hard to look past the top players in the world. Am I in the next category? Possibly. But I’m certainly not here to make up the numbers. I’m here to compete, and that’s what I do every week, and it’s what I live for. I live for weeks like this and it’s the reason I get out of bed in the morning.

So, yeah, I’m very happy to be here and I look forward to the challenges ahead. But you know if you start looking at Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark and Rory McIlroy, it’s hard to look past those players but I’ll do my best.”

His best. On big days in the past it has been enough. That’s all he can ask of himself.

“I love competing here. It is probably my favourite tournament of the year. It is one I would most like to win over everything, and I am comfortable driving through the gates now, the aura about the place is not there as much as it used to be. I know when it comes to Thursday I will just be all business and try and do the best I can.”

Philip Reid

Philip Reid

Philip Reid is Golf Correspondent of The Irish Times