Thin margins. The sight of Shane Lowry with his head in his hands on the 18th green – after a three-putt bogey finish – told the tale of how close and how far the Offaly man came in his quest to claim the Truist Championship at Philadelphia Cricket Club.
Close, but not close enough for Lowry, who had to settle ultimately for a share of second place as Austrian Sepp Straka – his European Ryder Cup team-mate – scooped the biggest title of his career, a closing-round 68 for a total of 16-under-par 264 giving him a two-stroke winning margin over Lowry and Justin Thomas.
While Straka scooped the winner’s cheque of $3.6 million (€3.2 million) in the sixth signature event of the PGA Tour, Lowry – compensated to some extent by a payday of $1.75m – was left to rue what might have been.
Lowry shot a closing-round 70 for 266 but was undone by a poor finish, bogeying two of his last three holes: the par 3 16th, where he missed the green left, and then he three-putted the 18th, where he got a break when his tee shot hit the roof of the corporate tentage but fell kindly to give him a perfect lie − only for him to race his birdie putt 12ft by and then miss the par return.
Rachael Blackmore: A trailblazing career from a ferociously determined jockey
Tom McKibbin to make PGA Championship debut in LIVed-up field
US PGA Championship: Tom McKibbin comes in out of the cold on a rainy day in Quail Hollow
PGA Championship 2025: Tee times, what TV channel is it on, weather, players to watch
Lowry moved into a share of the lead with 54-holes leader Straka when he birdied the first, from 12ft, and then claimed solo lead with a birdie on the fifth before the Austrian’s eagle shifted momentum back.
It was a game of to and fro between the two European Ryder Cup team-mates for much of the way, with American Thomas unsuccessfully threatening to force his way into the mix.
Straka, claiming a fourth PGA Tour title of his career, made a fine par after driving into a fairway bunker on the 18th. That par was enough for him to get the job done, leaving Lowry with head in hands.
Rory McIlroy signed for a bogey-free closing round of 68 – two birdies, on the first and 13th, and 16 pars – for a total of 10-under-par 270 in tied-seventh, and moving on to this week’s US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte with a sense of satisfaction.
“I think I’m in a good place. I didn’t feel like I played all that well this week, I still finished seventh. Even [with] what I feel is my bad golf, I’m still there or thereabouts. A couple [of] little improvements and little tweaks, especially going to a place I love like Quail Hollow, and I feel like I’m in a really good spot,” said Masters champion McIlroy.
In the Myrtle Beach Classic, an event played opposite to the Truist, Séamus Power shot a final-round 69 for a total of six-under-par 278 to finish in tied-35th. Power, like Lowry and McIlroy, is headed on to the US PGA, where there are five Irish players in the field for the second Major championship of the year.
