Shane Lowry finished T5 at the PGA Honda Classic, succumbing to eventual winner Chris Kirk who broke an eight-year drought to win the title.
He fell behind and just couldn’t keep up with Kirk or Eric Cole, who forced a playoff for the victory. Lowry opened up about the loss via the Independent:
“I played lovely, and I just couldn’t get it going. I started to get uncomfortable on the greens early on, and that was the way it was the whole day. Disappointing, but I had a lot of positives to take from this week.”
He added:
“I have to look at the positives. Obviously, I didn’t get the job done today. I just never got it going. I hit the ball well enough to get into contention but just didn’t hole the putts.”
Nevertheless, a top-10 finish in itself is a good thing for Shane Lowry. It’ll help his OWGR rank, which is currently 19th, and it helps for FedEx Cup standings as well.
“Some nice FedExCup points. My golf game is in a place where I’m happy with it. I’m going into a nice stretch of – a nice part of the season,” he continued.
“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,” Lowry added. “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.”
It’s still early, but Lowry has begun the season well and will hope to continue building on that success.
Shane Lowry reveals why he wears green and white ribbons
Those watching his latest PGA Tour outing may have noticed that Shane Lowry was sporting a green and white ribbon. This wasn’t for a trivial reason. On Thursday morning, the same day the tournament started, Lowry’s uncle died.
He discussed the loss and what it meant to him via Golf.com:
“Yeah, my dad’s brother, unexpected. It’s a very sad week for our family. To be honest, I wanted to go home on Thursday when I heard the news. A lot of people talked me out of it.”
He also said that he wanted to play for his uncle during the tournament:
“I’m here now. I’m trying to play for him and play for his wife and his kids and my cousins and my uncles and my aunts and everyone at home because we’re a very close family and very proud of our name and very proud of where we come from. Green and white is just where he’s from.”
He finished, adding:
“Yeah, hopefully, I can go out and make him proud tomorrow. Everyone keeps telling me how proud he was of me over the last number of years, and hopefully, I can do him another day proud tomorrow.”
Ultimately, Shane Lowry fell short of honoring his late uncle with a victory, but a top-10 finish and another strong appearance in 2023 will certainly make his family proud.