Shane

Lowry

Lowry is making just his third appearance at the Travelers Championship and explained his decision a bit after the round."The schedule changed for me this year. Whereas we used to have the Irish Open in a couple weeks’ time the week before the Scottish. We don’t have that this year, so I did have to add another tournament in my schedule around this time. Kind of made sense to play here.” He also cited fatigue after a long flight from Los Angeles but showed no sign of it today. He peppered 16 GIR and gained 1.9 strokes putting to post just two shots off the torrid pace set by Keegan Bradley. Lowry arrived at just 81st in the FedExCup standings so he could really use a big finish to secure his spot inside of the top 70.

The Irishman missed a short, birdie attempt on the opening hole but remained calm and steadied on to find five birdies while swallowing just one bogey. “So you just have to stay patient and stay on your game and in your routine. And that’s what I did. I felt like I did a great job of doing all that today. Like I said, I’m pretty happy with myself.” Lowry piped 13-of-14 fairways and landed 15 GIR. “I came here three times in the last three weeks, four weeks, played a lot of golf here. So it’s just a place I feel comfortable at now. But, yeah, I did prepare pretty well for this.” Lowry posted a T3 finish last year at the Masters, which was his first top 20 in seven tries.

The Irishman went through a mini-slump not too long ago with a missed cut at the Dubai Desert Classic and WM Phoenix Open. He was also dealing with caddie tunaround but has things back on track after a T14 last week at Riv and a T5 this week at home. “After my week in Phoenix, I was a little bit lost, and you’re standing there, and I was 180th or something in the FedExCup. You’re like, I need to make some FedExCup points soon. I’ve had two nice weeks, and hopefully I can build on this going forward now.” Just a few weeks later and Lowry now finds himself at 89th in the FedExCup race. He lost 1.07 strokes putting this week but the rest of his game was sharp at PGA National.

The flagship event was shortened due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II but that doesn’t diminish the accomplishments of Lowry. He racked up 15 birdies and an eagle without dropping a single shot all week at Wentworth. It was a well-deserved win for the Irishman who already had nine top 20s on his course resume. “I’m just so happy that I can win this tournament. I love this tournament and I love this course. I feel like I’ve had a great year but it’s not a great year unless you win. And I feel like this is just the glaze on the cake for me.” Lowry jumps to 5th in the DP World Tour Rankings with this win and gets a nice headstart in the 2023 Ryder Cup qualification standings.

The Irishman didn’t impress with the driver today, finding just five (of 14) fairways but he wasn’t too far out of position as he was still able to recover and land 14 greens in regulation. “I feel like over the last month or so, even most of the summer, that I’ve been struggling to get off to good starts in tournaments, and I’ve been playing my way back into them.” It looked like it’d be more of the same when he opened with eight pars and a birdie. Then, he turned up the heat after the turn with three birdies and an eagle to offset a lone blemish at the closing 18th. He walked off the course ranked top 5 in approach and around-the-green play but the highlight of his round came with the putter, pouring home a 56'6" eagle bomb at the par-5 14th. He started the week at 37th in the FedExCup race so he’ll have a good chance to advance onto East Lake if he can hang around near the top of the board all week.

Lowry shared his troubled on social media, “Bags still missing at Chicago airport! Anyone there able to help find them. There will be rewards” is what he typed on Tuesday. He provided a photo of victory today as his clubs arrived on Wednesday morning. Lowry will now turn his attention toward Sedgefield Country Club ahead of the season finale. The Irishman is 3-for-4 at this course with a notable solo 7th back in 2017. He arrives with three podium finishes on his resume in 2022 but is still searching for his first win of the season.

The Irishman records his third top-15 finish in the event and second top 10, second straight after a T2 (seven adrift) to McIlroy in 2019 at Hamilton G&CC, the most recent edition prior to this week. He was bogey-free 5-under thru 11 holes today and coming off an eagle-3 at 11 from 13'4", but meandered home in 1-over, overshadowing two circles at 15 and 16 with three squares at 12, 14 and 17, all failed scrambles. The 35-year-old, who signed for rounds of 67-69-69-66, ranked 3rd for the week SG: Tee-to-Green (11.863), including a -0.560 SG: Around in R4, and a pedestrian 57th SG: Putting (-1.730), gaining strokes (0.276) with the flat stick for the first time on Sunday. This is his fourth top 10 of the season in 13 events, matching his career high on TOUR (x3), first since T3 at the RBC Heritage four starts ago, and totaled one eagle and 18 birdies versus 11 bogeys.

Lowry arrived sizzling hot with consecutive T3’s at the Masters and last week’s RBC Heritage, both of those augmenting a season-best 2nd at the Honda. Poulter on the other hand, checked in off a T42 at the Heritage, did not earn an invite to the Masters, and has yet to record a top-10 finish on TOUR this season. All that aside, the Ryder Cup teammates, connecting up at the Zurich for the first time, kicked off with 64 (9 birdies, 1 bogey) in R1 four-balls, and were languishing a bit today on even-par thru 12 (3 birdies, 3 bogeys) before rallying with three more for the good at 13, 15 and 18, Lowry providing some late fireworks with a birdie-roll at 13 from 20'11" and a hole-out birdie-3 at 15 from 62'1" away. Lowry hasn’t won on TOUR since the 2019 Open (on conditional status) and Poulter hasn’t won since a P1 at the 2018 Houston Open. They’ll be in the sixth-to-last group in R3 with defending champs Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman.

Last week Sunday at the 86th Masters, the Irishman ate a triple bogey-6 at the par-3 fourth but had 14 holes remaining to make up for it, which he did with six birdies against one bogey for T3, but it still hurt. This week Sunday, he was bogey-free 4-under thru 13 holes (4 birdies) and firmly in the mix for a first TOUR win since the 2019 Open, but another par 3 got him, taking 5 at the 14th (second over the green and into the water from a waste bunker), and then missing birdie at the par-3 17th from 8'6" to join the playoff. To his credit, the South Florida resident did save par at the last (9'3") to secure a third podium of the season in nine events, and his third top 10 at the Heritage in five visits, second consecutive (T9/2021), matching a T3 in 2019 as the 18-hole leader. For the week, he posted laps of 66-72-65-69, totaled 20 birdies versus six bogeys and today’s double, and ranked 2nd SG: Approach (8.419) and 14th SG: Putting (3.450), though 62nd in SG: Around (-1.866), including a -0.905 ARG on Sunday.

Beginning the day T14, five back of leader Patrick Cantlay (70), the Irishman camouflaged two squares at holes 3 (3-putt from 20'4") and 6 (missed par-saver from 4'10") with eight birdies, four from between six and nine feet. Afterwards (link below): “I feel like, without complaining too much, 65 is the worst score I could have shot. I hit the ball unbelievable today, and I didn’t really hole anything. That putt on the last (8'5") is probably the longest I’ve holed all day.” On 10 (of 14) fairways and 16 greens in regulation, the 35-year-old gained a whopping 5.730 strokes tee-to-green, 4.702 of that on approach, but lost 1.815 strokes on-the-green. He’ll be in the final pairing on Sunday with Varner III, scheduled for 1:50 pm ET, vying for a third PGA TOUR title, first since the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush 45 starts ago, where he was the 54-hole leader by four, shot 1-over 72, and won by six over runner-up and playing competitor Tommy Fleetwood (74).