Incredulous, beaten and dejected. That’s how Shane Lowry presented himself to the journalists minutes after enduring a painful tournament finish at the Cognizant Classic at Palm Beaches. When he was already touching victory with his fingertips, when he had already imagined his four-year-old red-haired daughter running across the green to celebrate, when he was convinced that he could finally claim his first individual victory in a regular PGA Tour event, two horrible shots condemned him to second place with consecutive double bogeys on holes 16 and 17.
Lowry couldn’t believe what was happening to him and he confessed as much to his caddie after the second double bogey. “I said to Darren: ‘How can I feel like this now, when I went through what I went through last September in… and handled it well?’ He was referring, of course, to the Ryder Cup at Bethpage, when he became the hero of Europe by sinking the decisive putt that secured the away victory for Luke Donald‘s team.
The amiable Irish golfer is neither the first nor the last to lose a tournament on the final holes due to his own mistakes, yet yesterday he experienced something he had never felt before. “Obviously I’m extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands and I threw it away. What more can I say? That’s twice this year, so I’m getting good at this (referring to the Dubai Invitational where he finished with a double bogey on the 18th). What can I say? I played incredible all day and then one bad shot on the 16th completely threw me off for the last three holes. It’s never happened to me before. It felt strange. I couldn’t feel the clubface on the last three holes after the tee shot on the 16th. It was strange. What can I say? It’s very disappointing. This is going to be hard to digest. Dubai was tough at the start of the year, but this is going to be quite hard,” he admitted.
Credit to Lowry for his courage and composure in facing the media after the debacle. Not many would do it, and fewer in these times. Hats off to the Irishman. He offered no excuses. He was asked: “We saw you stepping away from the shot on 16 because of someone’s shadow, did it affect you at all when setting up?” To which he responded firmly: “No, none of that.”
The 2019 Open Championship winner admitted that the hardest part was that he had already thought about the victory and how the celebration would be. “The hardest part today is that I’ve never won in front of my four-year-old daughter. She was there waiting for me. Today I wanted it just for her. I don’t care about anything else. I wanted it with all my might. Seeing her little red head running towards me on the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win. I didn’t get ahead of myself, but I felt very comfortable out there. I tried to get a lot out of my 3-iron on the 16th. I did the one thing I really couldn’t do.” And he clarified: “The previous three days I had hit that same 3-iron and put it down the fairway without problems.”
The Bear Trap bites the leader 💦
Nursing a three shot lead, Shane Lowry’s tee shot on 16 finds the water @The_Cognizant.
📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/GlNGyQHd9i
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 1, 2026
A sand save for double bogey drops Shane Lowry into a tie for the lead with two holes to play @The_Cognizant.
📺 NBC https://t.co/8e9CGmM07F pic.twitter.com/bRVqw3P5ou
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 1, 2026
Regarding the shot on 17, Lowry somewhat acknowledged that seeing Nico Echavarría’s birdie, which tied him for the lead, affected him. “Really, on 16 I made an incredible recovery from the sand to make six and stay one up. But then I go up to 17 and see Nico sink that putt for birdie and tie for the lead. I had the perfect number for me and it was perfect. The wind was slightly against. That’s my bread and butter: a little touch with the 7-iron. But you know, golf sometimes does strange things to you and today it certainly did to me.”
The Bear Trap strikes again 💦
Shane Lowry’s tee shot at 17 finds the water, and a second straight double drops him two back of the lead.
📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/AaMrN82Uy7
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 1, 2026
Shane already suffered a tough blow in Dubai. Perhaps this is worse because it’s the second in two months. Even so, he is clear about the only remedy to move forward. “There’s no other way, is there? I have a tee time next Thursday at Bay Hill and I have no choice but to move on.”
