Gavin Cooney reports from Quail Hollow Golf Club

SHANE LOWRY HAS become a study in the paradox of professional golf: the better you play, the more criticism you get. 

Since the 2023 Ryder Cup – for which he was a captain’s pick having ranked 78th on the PGA Tour and endured a six-month stretch without a top-10 anywhere – Lowry has dramatically raised the floor of his game. Last week Lowry broke into the world’s top 10 for the first time, and has finished inside the top-20 in 18 of his last 23 events, stretching back to last year’s US Open.

His burgeoning reputation is recognised by more glamorous groupings at major championships, and tomorrow he will play alongside Rickie Fowler and two-time PGA Championship winner Brooks Koepka.

But Lowry is finding that it’s not just the air that’s thinner at the highest levels: the praise is too.

Hence attention is now increasingly drawn to the fact his last solo victory came at the 2022 BMW PGA Championship, which broke a drought going back to the 2019 Open at Portrush.

Lowry lost out to Rory McIlroy when playing in the final group at Pebble Beach at the start of the year, but last week brought his most gut-wrenching miss yet. 

“I was asked about it a lot last week, having not won in a while”, says Lowry. “They love talking about it over here, but I feel like it’s hard to win out here. The standard is good, and a couple of things go your ways on Sundays and it can be very different.”  

Tied for the lead with three holes remaining at the Truist Championship with Sepp Straka last weekend, Lowry bogeyed 16 and then 18 to miss out by two shots. He sank to his haunches and buried his face in his hands after a sloppy three-putt on the final green, with his aggressive birdie putt backfiring and taking the pressure off Straka’s testing par putt. Lowry left the course in Philadelphia without speaking to the media.

“Look, Sunday, hurt a bit”, Lowry told the Irish media by the 18th green at Quail Hollow ahead of tomorrow’s opening day. 

“I felt like I probably could have won that tournament. I should have won that tournament and it’s hard to win out here. So when you give yourself chances like that, it stings.” 

The schedule then tipped Lowry right into the year’s second major at Quail Hollow, but Monday’s deluge of rain meant practice was curbed and Lowry was forced into a day of (relative) rest, and so went to the gym and did some recovery before catching up on The Sunday Game. 

Bouncing back from last Sunday’s disappointment will be made more difficult by the demands of Quail Hollow, a bombers paradise which does not play to the strengths of Lowry’s preference for precision over power. 

“I’m gonna have to play my best even get in or around the lead on the weekend”, says Lowry. “I’ve no record around here at all, bad, not played well.” 

Lowry isn’t normally one to swan-dive into statistics, but he has delved into his record at Quail Hollow and found his issue is not an issue off the tee, but around the green. This, he says, heartens him, as his chipping and putting are in a good place. (Lowry ranks 15th for strokes gained around the green on the PGA Tour this year.) 

“I’ll be completely honest with you, I wish we were at a venue that suits my game a little bit better, but I do feel like if I play my best golf, I can contend. It’ll be hard, like I said, but I am actually playing some of my best golf around now.” 

And when it comes to finally getting over the line, Lowry can call on some inspiration from McIlroy.

“You just have to keep knocking on the door and the next chance I get I’ll try to burst through it. It’s all you can do. 

“We could be here talking about worse things. Giving myself a chance is a great place to be, that’s what I will try to keep doing.

“Pro golf is just full ups and downs. When you’re going well you need to try to ride the wave as best you can and take advantage of it, and when you’re not going great you just have to fight as hard as you can through it. I have done that well over the last few years and here I am again, trying to ride the wave as best I can. Hopefully there’s a great day ahead of me in the near future.”