![\"Shane](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cc10476f-e500-.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe Offaly man (39) was so devastated to close with an 80 and crash from fourth to tied 30th at Augusta National that there was no repeat of 2025, when he bought McIlroy a case of expensive wine and took it to that first Masters celebration.<\/p>\n
The 2019 Open champion returned to action with a one-under 70 in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town that left him seven shots behind Ludvig Aberg.<\/p>\n
He admitted it was difficult to get back to work after Sunday\u2019s disappointment, but he also vowed not to throw in the towel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Shane Lowry reacts to his shot from a bunker on the seventh hole during the first round at the RBC Heritage tournament in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. Photo: AP Photo\/Mike Stewart<\/p>\n
Masters Daily – McIlroy masters Augusta again<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up this morning, and I felt like Thursday came around pretty quickly this week,\u201d Lowry told Golf Channel. \u201cIt’s been a tough few days.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I felt like I played a lot of good golf last week and got really nothing out of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always hard to do that when you prepare so much for a tournament like that and perform as good as I did for a few days.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I try to take as many positives as I can. And today, I feel like it was always gonna be a tough enough round to get my kind of mojo back, and I felt like I played nice today.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the Masters and McIlroy\u2019s second win in a row, he admitted he was too disappointed to celebrate with the Holywood star on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, you know the stories from last year. I called over to his house with a case of wine and all that,\u201d Lowry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI texted him on Sunday night, and I said, \u2018Honestly, I’m so happy for you, but I don’t have it in me tonight to go over and celebrate\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was feeling a bit down and dejected a little bit, so I just stayed at home with my crew, but I’ll see him in a couple of weeks in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowry has endured massive disappointments this year with late mistakes costing him wins in the Dubai Invitational and the Cognizant Classic.<\/p>\n
The final round of the Masters was another huge blow, but he’s not about to throw in the towel as he plays the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Brooks Koepka next week before catching up with McIlroy in the Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral in a fortnight<\/p>\n
\u201cThis game has given me a lot of punches in the gut this year,\u201d Lowry said. \u201cIt\u2019s testing me a little bit, but, you know, I’m not going to stop working hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m not going to give up, and I’m going to give my best for as long as I may be playing this game.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s hoping that victory, when it eventually arrives, will be all the sweeter.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s the plan, anyway,\u201d he said with a grin.<\/p>\n
He has work to do to win this week, but he was upbeat about his performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit the ball in play,\u201d he said after making three birdies and two bogeys.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was windy out there. It was tricky on the back nine, and it was one of those days where I felt like it was in between clubs all the time, and I struggled to hit it close.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, you know, one under is not too bad, and hopefully I go out tomorrow, and I can shoot a low one.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his game, he said, \u201cI think if my putter gets hot, I\u2019ll just be dangerous.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t feel bad on the greens. I feel like I hit a good putt down the last and missed by a foot. It was just a bad read<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I feel like if I hole a few putts, I’m doing a lot well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, P\u00e1draig Harrington was just two shots off the lead after opening with a four-under 68 in the Senior PGA in Florida.<\/p>\n
He made six birdies at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton to share eighth place behind Brian Gay, Australia\u2019s Steve Allan, Germany\u2019s Bernhard Langer and Spain\u2019s Miguel Angel Jim\u00e9nez, who shot six-under 66s.<\/p>\n
Darren Clarke was 76th after his two over 74.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Offaly man (39) was so devastated to close with an 80 and crash from fourth to tied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[7938,61,60,1394,1395,112,170752],"class_list":{"0":"post-403165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-brian-keogh","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-rory-mcilroy","12":"tag-shane-lowry","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-us-masters"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}