Shane Lowry arrived at Augusta National a couple of days before his 11th Masters carrying the kind of resume that should make the place feel familiar and the kind of recent scars that make it feel unfinished. The Irishman said he has never driven out of Augusta on a Sunday evening happy with himself, and that frustration still hangs over a tournament he has spent years trying to conquer.
Lowry was tied-42nd at last year’s Masters after being in contention late in his third round, and he finished third in 2022. He has already won the Irish Open as an amateur, lifted The Open at Royal Portrush in 2019, taken WGC and Rolex Series titles and, last September, helped win the Ryder Cup at Bethpage. But the green jacket is the one prize that keeps pulling him back to Augusta.
That pull feels even sharper now because of what happened only days earlier. Lowry led the Cognizant by three strokes with three holes to play before double bogeying 16 and 17, a collapse that handed the title to Nico Echavarria. He said he probably could have done with a week off after that finish, long enough to let the dust settle before getting back on the horse.
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Augusta has given him both promise and disappointment, and Lowry did not try to hide how much the Masters still means to him. He said he had always wanted to be the first Irishman to win a green jacket, but that can no longer happen, and now the target has shifted to being the second. He also said he would love to be 70 years of age, sitting out on that lawn with Rory, having a drink, and would love to keep going to the champions’ dinner forever.
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That is the tension inside Lowry’s week: a player good enough to belong in the championship conversation, but old enough in Masters terms to know how often Sunday can turn on one bad stretch. McIlroy’s win means the first-Irishman milestone is gone, yet Lowry’s belief has not gone with it. At Augusta, where he has already been close enough to taste it, he is still chasing a jacket, and he is still chasing the chance to belong there for years to come.
