As Rory McIlroy walked off the 18th green after beating Justin Rose in a playoff to win The Masters, it was no surprise that the first player to embrace him was his good friend Shane Lowry.
From the outside, it appears that Shane Lowry has been such an important figure in Rory McIlroy‘s life, particularly in the last few years.
Of course, it was Lowry wrestling McIlroy into the car when tempers boiled over on Saturday evening at the 2023 Ryder Cup. Meanwhile, the pair won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans together last year.
Lowry would not have been surprised to face some questions about McIlroy ahead of The Masters. For the last 11 years, the Northern Irishman has gone into the first major of the year knowing that it is all that separates him from the career grand slam.
But Lowry put himself in the mix too. Heading onto the 17th tee in the third round, the 2019 Open champion found himself seven under par for the tournament.
Dan Rapaport hits out at what happened to Shane Lowry at The Masters
Unfortunately, two bogeys in the final two holes seemed to put paid to his hopes of winning. He left himself seven shots back of McIlroy with 18 holes to play.
Lowry took exception to subsequently being asked about McIlroy by the media. And he went on to express his frustration after having to give an interview so soon after such an agonising end to his day.
And speaking on Dan on Golf, Dan Rapaport insisted that Lowry was completely right to call out the question giving the timing.
“We’re going to talk about that also, but it’s not a fair question during the tournament. He was still kind of in the mix,” he said.
“He was one shot behind Justin Rose. Justin Rose shot 66, he was six behind I think, maybe seven behind. He shot 66 on Sunday. If Shane Lowry would have shot 66 on Sunday, he would have finished second or been there, so it was not a fair question. But it was fair after the fact.”
Lowry’s response may have been exactly what Rory McIlroy needed ahead of the final round at Augusta National
Whether Lowry knew it or not, it was arguably a very smart strategy to make a fuss of the question.
One thing that is for certain is that he would have known just how much pressure McIlroy was dealing with going into the week. And what he did was not add to that by making any comments about how well he is doing or how close he may be to winning.
You would imagine that that was not going through Lowry’s mind after he had made two bogeys to leave himself with only a slim chance of glory on Sunday. Ultimately, Lowry would not have hesitated had he been the one in the playoff simply because his good friend was on the cusp of history.
But plenty were talking about what Lowry said heading into Sunday. And actually, it just reminded everyone that some of those players further down the leaderboard still felt they had a tournament to win while so many of us debated whether McIlroy or Bryson DeChambeau would secure the green jacket.
So it may have indeed have been beneficial for McIlroy for Lowry to not entertain the unfair question.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
