Shane Lowry: 'I’m proud of the way I went out there dealing with what happened on the eighth hole'
HAPPY WITH COMEBACK: Shane Lowry is happy with the way his fought back to finish in the top 20. Pic: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy turned a four-shot deficit to start the day into a three-shot lead with six to play just minutes after play resumed after a four-hour suspension, while Shane Lowry climbed into the top 20 with a 5-under 67 on Sunday at the Players Championship.
McIlroy grabbed the lead alone with a 13-foot birdie putt on the par-5 11th that had him 4-under on the day and 12-under overall – a shot ahead of J.J. Spaun – when play was suspended after a loud clap of thunder at 1.15 pm local time.
Four hours later, McIlroy cleaned up a birdie on 12 while Spaun three-putted for bogey a hole behind him on 11. That gave McIlroy, the 2019 Players champion, a three-shot cushion over Tom Hoge (posted 10-under with Sunday 66), Spaun and Akshay Bhatia.
But McIlroy gave a shot back with a bogey on 14 after missing the fairway off the tee and having to chop out, heading the the 15 tee nursing a two-shot lead with the most volatile stretch of TPC Sawgrass left to play.
Hoge had to a 17-foot birdie putt remaining on 18 when play resumed to potentially set the clubhouse target at 11-under but he missed it.
Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre climbed to 9-under with birdies on 16 and 17 after the suspension, sharing fifth with alternate Danny Walker as they all raced to try to beat sunset and get the Players finished on Sunday night.
McIlroy was making it look easy with an ideal birdie-eagle start, but it proved anything but easy from there as he worked to erase a four-shot deficit at the start of the final round. He scrambled for a series of pars after missing either the fairway or the green before finally striping one down the center of the seventh fairway only to roll into a divot. He pulled his subsequent wedge in a brutal spot to try to save par from a bunker and made bogey to fall out of the three-way lead with Bhatia and Spaun.
But a bounceback birdie on the par-3 eighth and another on 11 pushed McIlroy to 12-under, one ahead of Spaun well the horn blew.
Lowry, meanwhile, exorcised a few frustrations and earned a few precious world ranking and FedEx Cup points with a 5-under 67 in the final round to walk off the course tied for 20th with two-time defending champion Scottie Scheffler.
“I kind of rescued a half decent week today,” Lowry said. “I felt like I’ve played pretty nice all week, but just anytime there is a mistake to be made, I made it. But that this golf course. You know, when you’re playing the best tournaments on the best golf courses, it’s just hard sometimes.”
Lowry churned his way as high as a tie for 17th with six birdies through 16 holes in the final round that was pushed earlier in an attempt to beat forecasted storms. His bid for a clean sheet, however, ended with a double bogey after pulling his tee shot into trouble left of the par-3 eighth hole.
After fighting for three days to come to terms with TPC Sawgrass, Lowry got things going with four consecutive birdies on 13, 14, 15 and 16 on his opening nine Sunday morning to charge up the leaderboard. He picked up two more birdies with a 21-foot putt on the third and a short 5-footer on the seventh and went to the eighth tee sharing the lowest score of the day.
But he hooked his iron off the long par-3 tee and it clipped a tree, dropped down on a mound and bounced into a sawgrass cluster. His only option was to hack it out 14 feet into the rough. His bogey putt from 17 feet stopped an inch from the hole.
Despite his untimely double just before, Lowry piped a 301-yard drive into the right fairway on the par-5 ninth when play was halted. He came back and struck a fairway wood onto the front of the green and two-putted from 54 feet for one last birdie.
“I’m proud of the way I went out there dealing with what happened on the eighth hole,” he said. “Just a bad shot. I rushed it a little bit trying to get finished. But it was nice to come out and hit a great shot on nine, two-putted that and I’m gonna sneak a top 25 which is really never a bad week. A few FedEx Cup points and a few ranking points.”
Lowry’s usual strengths were back in his bag on Sunday morning, as he hit every fairway on his opening nine and nine of 14 overall. In blustery conditions the previous morning, Lowry actually lost more than 3.6 strokes to the field off the tee and ranked 72nd of the 72 players who made the cut in a strokes gained category he typically ranks among the best on tour.
Lowry finished second to McIlroy this season at Pebble Beach and hoped his fellow Irishman would close the deal Sunday.
“I beat him Wednesday and he beat me Tuesday,” Lowry said of McIlroy. “He’s been amazing. He turns it on, and he’s pretty good. I hope he gets the job done. This is a huge deal and the big tournament.”
