As head-wreckers go, this one beat Banagher; which, for Shane Lowry, and the manner of his late collapse with seemingly not one but both hands on the Cognizant Classic trophy, is likely to linger.
Lowry’s unravelling over the closing stretch of holes at PGA National was hard to fathom. After all, this was the man who stood tallest of anyone when the Ryder Cup was on the line at Bethpage, where he produced one wonder shot after another in his vital singles with Russell Henley to ensure Europe retained the trophy.
That was September, this is now.
Lowry has no choice other than to try to clear the mind – hello, Dr Bob Rotella! – with this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational followed by next week’s The Players, the PGA Tour’s flagship tournament, ahead of a run-in to next month’s Masters at Augusta National.
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In professional golf, there is no time to stand still. But the mental scars from this one will take some healing.
To Lowry’s credit, after the carnage of those two late double-bogeys, one on 16 and the next on 17, which saw victory slip away – “I beat myself,” he candidly observed as Nico Echavarria benefitted from his collapse – there was no slipping away to hide in a dark place. Instead, Lowry talked openly and his references to wanting to win in front of his youngest daughter Ivy allowed us a glimpse into his own heartbreak, a purely human emotion to voice his suffering.
Lowry has played five tournaments so far this year and conceivably should have won twice. In the Dubai Invitational at the Creek Club in the UAE, a closing double-bogey for Lowry proved costly as Nacho Elvira on that occasion won out.
But this was worse.
Through 69 holes Lowry had moved into a three strokes lead and was playing sublimely. For those 69 holes, he was +9.85 in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking, a key metric for golf nerds. For the last three holes, he was -4.35. Go figure.
Unless you’re Scottie Scheffler or Rory McIlroy who trend in multiple wins each season, winning on tour – for the vast majority of players – is hard.
Lowry’s last win actually came in tandem with McIlroy in the 2024 Zurich Classic, a two-player team tournament. Before that, his last solo win on the DP World Tour was in the 2022 BMW PGA Championship while his last solo win on the PGA Tour was his famous Claret Jug success in The Open at Royal Portrush in 2019.
So, winning is hard. Which makes those that slip away all the harder to take.
What went wrong this time?
Perhaps a lack of focus, or a lapse in concentration? It was noticeable how relaxed Lowry was walking off the 15th tee after doing the hard bit of finding the green to the start of the Bear Trap, three shots clear of his pursuers at the time and immersed in conversation with Austin Smotherman on the walk from tee-to-green. Was he too relaxed? Thinking ahead, maybe?
The killer shots came off the tee on 16 and 17, each swinging wildly right so that the Srixon balls disappeared to watery graves. A 3-iron on 16. A chippy 7-iron on 17.
“I hit two really bad shots at the wrong time,” admitted Lowry and nobody could try to sweeten up those words because he was telling the truth. He, more than anyone, knew it.
The slim comforts, the tiny positives, for Lowry are that he moved to 19th on the FedEx Cup standings and to 27th on the updated world rankings.
But the mental scarring is a different thing altogether. Wins are hard to come by on tour. Getting back into the right headspace by Thursday for the Arnold Palmer Invitational is, perhaps, a good thing in that there is something immediate to focus on, another of the PGA Tour’s $20 million signature events.
No doubt, Dr Bob’s words too will assist in the recovery process.
And, if he needs to go back to those feats at Bethpage where he stood strong, they are fresh in the memory to know that such fortitude is there. As hard as this loss might be to take, mistakes are only mistakes if you don’t learn from them.
