Lowry happy with game as he closes on top 10 goal
Shane Lowry hits a tee shot on the 10th prior to THE PLAYERS Championship on the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass. Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Shane Lowry will step to the 10th tee on Thursday morning to start his 10th Players Championship carrying something he’s never held before – a top-15 ranking in the world.
After a seventh-place finish last week in the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Offaly man climbed to No. 14 in the Official World Golf Ranking – eclipsing the No. 16 ranking he achieved a couple weeks after winning the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
The soon-to-be 38-year-old Lowry does not brush off what it means to him to be within reach of the top-10, admitting “It is nice. It really is.”
"You’ll have the naysayers saying there’s obviously a few guys that could be ahead of me that are not playing on this tour, but it is what it is,” he said on the eve of the Players at TPC Sawgrass. “And I’ve always based a level of achievement around world rankings. Certainly one of my goals at the start of the year was to get to my highest world ranking and to go up towards that top 10.
“I played well in the right tournaments this year. We had, obviously, a great field in Pebble and great field last week and they’re my two best weeks. So, yeah, the result of that is bouncing up those were rankings. It is nice. It really is. And, you know, it’s a good feeling because my best has been 16th before and I wasn’t really too overly pleased with that.”
Despite his lofty perch among the game’s elite, Lowry says it won't count for much on Thursday morning when he tees off at 12:39pm Irish time with Bay Hill winner Russell Henley and Ryder Cup teammate Viktor Hovland.
“It doesn’t change your thinking at all,” he said. “When you stand on that first tee, your ball and golf clubs and the golf course don’t know what world ranking you are. It might change your expectation a fraction, but I’ll make sure that that doesn’t happen. My expectation of myself is always really high.”
Lowry has said that the 2024 season in which he contended in both the PGA and Open Championships was only behind his 2019 campaign as the best of his career. His good form has extended into 2025, where he finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy at Pebble Beach and also had a solid T11 finish two weeks ago at PGA National.
“I’ve had a couple of bad weeks this year as well; not particularly happy about those, obviously,” he said. “But I’ve had a couple of good weeks and have a good start this season. Obviously we’re here this week and then we’ve got a big one [the Masters] in four weeks' time that everyone’s gonna be talking about it. So I feel like, certainly more than other years, my game is in probably a decent place going into this stretch of tournaments.”
Lowry has three top-20 finishes in his last four starts at TPC Sawgrass, including solo eighth in 2021. He won on another Pete Dye-designed course last year with McIlroy in the Zurich Classic and has had a couple of close calls at another Dye gem in Harbour Town at the RBC Heritage.
“I like it around here. I wouldn’t say my results have been amazing around here, but I do love the golf course. I think it’s great,” he said. “Tests all parts of your game. It doesn’t do any one person, all that type stuff. … I think you get it hard to find a better tournament than this in the world.
“Obviously, I’m playing pretty good, so I’m pretty, pretty happy where I’m at coming into this.”
Joining Lowry in Thursday morning wave off the 10th tee is Séamus Power at 1:08 pm Irish time with Mackenzie Hughes and J.T. Poston.
McIlroy is in the marquee world Nos. 1-2-3 group off the first tee at 5:29 pm IT with Scottie Scheffler and Xander Schauffele.
