Shane Lowry finished T5 at the PGA Honda Classic, succumbing to eventual winner Chris Kirk, who broke an eight-year title drought.
He fell behind and simply couldn’t keep up with Kirk or Eric Cole, who forced a playoff for the win. Lowry spoke about the loss via The Independent:
“I played really well, and I just couldn’t make it work. I started to feel uncomfortable on the greens early on, and it was like that all day. Disappointing, but I had a lot of positives to take away from it.” week.”
added:
“I have to look at the positives. Obviously, I didn’t get the job done today. I just never got it done. I hit the ball well enough to get into the fight, but I just didn’t hole the putts.”
However, a top-10 finish in itself is a good thing for Shane Lowry. He will help his OWGR ranking, which is currently 19, and also help his FedEx Cup ranking.
“Some good FedExCup points. My golf game is in a place that I’m happy with. I’m going to go into a good stretch of a good part of the season,” he continued.
“After my week in Phoenix, I was kind of lost, and you’re standing there, and I was 180 or something like that in the FedExCup,” Lowry added. “You’re like, I need to make some FedExCup points soon. I’ve had a nice two weeks and hopefully I can build on this now.”
It’s still early days, but Lowry has started the season well and hopes to continue to build on that success.
Shane Lowry reveals why he wears green and white headbands
Those who watched his last PGA Tour outing may have noticed that Shane Lowry was sporting a green and white ribbon. This was not for a trivial reason. On Thursday morning, the same day the tournament began, Lowry’s uncle died.
He spoke about the loss and what it meant to him via Golf.com:
“Yes, my dad’s brother, unexpected. It is 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 back home because we’re a very close family and we’re very proud of our name and very proud of where we we come from. Green and white is right where he’s from.”
He finished, adding:
“Yeah, hopefully, I can go out there and make him proud tomorrow. Everyone keeps telling me how proud he’s been of me for the past few years, and hopefully, I can make him proud another day tomorrow.”
Ultimately, Shane Lowry fell short of honoring his late uncle with a win, but a top-10 finish and another solid appearance in 2023 will certainly do his family proud.