Smylie Kaufman has issued his verdict on Shane Lowry failing to win the Cognizant Classic after making two double bogeys in his final three holes on Sunday at PGA National.
Shane Lowry looked to be on course to secure his first PGA Tour victory since he won the 2024 Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside Rory McIlroy.
What impact will Shane Lowry’s collapse at the Cognizant Classic have on his career?
Will he ever win again on the PGA Tour?
The Irishman was six under par for his round by the time he reached The Bear Trap. Unfortunately, things soon unravelled for the 2019 Open Championship winner.
Lowry found the water on both 16 and 17, leading to two double bogeys. That opened the door for Nico Echavarria to win by two.
Smylie Kaufman reacts to Shane Lowry failing to win the Cognizant Classic
Lowry’s record on the PGA Tour is an underwhelming one for a player of his quality. He is a major champion who holed the putt that ensured that Europe retained the Ryder Cup at Bethpage in September.
But speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that Lowry struggled to handle the situation coming down the stretch at PGA National.
“Let’s go back to January, and Shane Lowry is in Dubai. He has a chance to win the golf tournament in Dubai by birdieing the last hole. Par gets him into a playoff. He makes double bogey. He’s now just converted a 54-hole lead one of six times. He’s won three PGA Tour events, one with Rory McIlroy that’s most recent. Obviously, the most recent individual one he won was 2019 at The Open Championship. It’s definitely something now that’s going to be the monkey on his back,” he said.
“When it comes to closing golf tournaments, Shane Lowry had the most important putt last September to secure the point, so to say that he can’t do it is quite unfair. But we also have to look at what we’ve seen and say hey, there seems to be a pattern here.
“The only thing you can attribute those swings to, for a guy who’s typically one of the most accurate drivers of the golf ball, one of the best iron players in the game; his approach to the green stats last year had him third, we’re talking about a player whose strengths should be magnified down the stretch at PGA National, and the only thing you can attribute all that to is just pressure.”
Where Shane Lowry sits for final round scoring average on the PGA Tour
The worry will be that Lowry did not see his shots only just find the water on 16 and 17. There was no reason to flirt with the right side on the 16th, while it was almost immediately apparent that he was in big trouble on the penultimate hole.
Lowry currently sits 25th on tour for final round scoring average, so it is not as though playing on Sunday causes him a host of issues.
Unfortunately, that makes what happened at the Cognizant Classic all the more troubling. He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
It would be easier if there was a consistent theme between all of those agonising finishes. But few would have even got close to producing the run he conjured up late on Sunday at Bethpage last year.
In truth, that colossal performance to ensure that Europe did not throw away the Ryder Cup is going to be remembered for a long time after virtually everyone has forgotten about what happened this past Sunday at PGA National.
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