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KIAWAH ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA | There are few things more pleasant than a pair of Irishmen walking off the last green with the clubhouse lead – even if they knew they left a few strokes and a golden opportunity out on the Ocean Course this week.
Countrymen and good mates Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry teed off 2½ hours before the heavyweight main event at the PGA Championship on Sunday, and they very nearly stole the show. When they exited with a pair of matching 69s, they were tied fifth and leaders in the clubhouse. (When the dust settled, they were tied fourth.)
You would have thought the two of them had just won the member-guest.
“Honestly playing with Paddy today was one of the best rounds of golf I’ve ever had,” said Lowry. “It was so much fun. The two of us had that coming off, we’re obviously grinding it out to beat each other and trying to do well in the tournament, and it’s just … it was one of the best days I’ve had on the golf course. I played lovely golf again, and (I’m) very happy going into my week off now.”
Harrington, three months shy of his 50th birthday, concurred.
“I will say, that was probably my most enjoyable round of golf I’ve had on the golf course in a long time,” said the three-time major winner and European Ryder Cup captain for 2021. “It’s amazing when you play with a friend, it definitely helped both of us relax and just play golf and both of us played really well. We both could have been quite a few shots better.”
“Honestly playing with Paddy today was one of the best rounds of golf I’ve ever had. It was so much fun."
Shane Lowry
Ah, that last bit is key. Whether they could have been enough shots better to catch an inspired 50-year-old Phil Mickelson, they each left the Ocean Course after multiple rounds regretting a few frittered strokes here and there. There were even more Sunday, as each gave away three bogeys.
But not enough to really complain.
“I can’t be disappointed,” said Harrington of his best major finish since a T4 at the 2012 U.S. Open. “Yes, I left shots out there and I will look back at particularly Friday and today as potential for lots of shots. But this isn’t my tournament. I don’t feel like it was my tournament. Sometimes you’re playing a tournament and you feel like you let one slip away. No matter what happens today, even if the lead finishes 7 (under), yes I could have gotten to 7 but everything would have had to happen. I don’t have any regrets about this.”
Especially since Paul Casey missed a 12-footer for birdie on 18, allowing Harrington to get a top-four invitation into the 2022 Masters.
“How’s that for taking care of your captain?” Casey said.
Lowry’s game keeps trending up as he approaches finally defending his victory at the 2019 Open Championship. His recent run now includes career-best finishes at the Players Championship (eighth), Masters (T21) and now the PGA.
"It’s amazing when you play with a friend, it definitely helped both of us relax and just play golf and both of us played really well."
PÁdraig Harrington
“I went away from the Masters like this, just a little bit more so this week,” Lowry said. “I’m going to go away from this weekend feeling, ‘What if?’ But that’s a great feeling to have, feeling like I was close to having a great chance this week. I don’t know what the leaders are going to do on the way in, but I think even 4 or 5 under might have some sort of a sniff if you finish on that.”
Sunday was a mutual admiration meeting among two great friends who often share housing as well as a pint or two. When Harrington got his nose in front with a chip-in birdie on the 14th hole, Lowry was cheering him on.
“He hasn’t lost it, has he?” Lowry said. “He’s still the ultra-competitor. You know, he chipped in on 14 and then he bombed a drive down 15. I was like, ‘Wow, if Paddy can make one or two on the way in, he's got a good chance here.’ He’s 50 in August, so God help those guys on the senior tour.”
Of more essential concerns is the Ryder Cup and Lowry’s potential place in it. It’s generally accepted among golf’s unwritten rules that rookies need to earn their way into an automatic spot for their first Ryder Cup appearance. Harrington doesn’t believe that condition necessarily applies to the still-reigning Open champion.
“I think, in general, rookies have to play their way into a spot,” Harrington conceded this week when asked about Lowry’s potential prospects for receiving one of his three captain’s picks for the team that will face the Americans at Whistling Straits in September. “Nobody really refers to Shane as a rookie. He’s a major winner, so that’s a completely different scenario.”
Before the PGA, Lowry ranked fourth on the World points list among players outside the top nine spots that automatically qualify for Team Europe, behind Robert MacIntyre, Danny Willett and Sergio García – who Harrington said this week “nearly needs to lose a limb” not to get picked. Right behind Lowry in World points was Ryder Cup veteran Justin Rose, who shot 67 Sunday to post his second top-10 major finish this season and is a likely lock for the team.
Much further back is European stalwart Ian Poulter, a man any captain would be hard-pressed to pass up. With points on both the European and World lists being worth double between now and the September picks deadline, a lot can change. Like Lowry, MacIntyre has never played in the biennial match.
Of the players currently holding the top nine spots in the European and World points, only two would be Ryder Cup rookies – Viktor Hovland of Norway and Victor Perez of France. That leaves a potential opening to pip one of the staples for Lowry – still the most recent European golfer to win a major at the 2019 Open at Royal Portrush who also counts a WGC victory at Firestone in 2015 among his five career European Tour wins.
Lowry is 34 years old and a veteran of 32 major starts with five top-10s including runner-up at the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont. He wouldn’t be your average “rookie,” and he continues to round into form with those efforts in the Players and the Masters.
In short, Lowry possesses the kind of résumé that might justify a rookie waiver.
“Again, that’s what I’m saying, there’s no rules to these things because you have to take these things into consideration,” said Harrington. “And the fact that (Shane’s) a big-time player, he likes the big occasion … even as a rookie he’s not going to be star-struck, is he?”
Lowry said this week he is more focused on his current form and trying to get across the line with his first victory since Royal Portrush than he is trying to impress the captain.
“Look, I’m in the position I’m in,” he said. “This is another good week towards it. It’s always good to play well in front of him under the gun because I play a lot of golf with him, practice rounds, but for him to see me in competition was pretty nice, as well.
“So yeah, look, I’ve got a lot of golf to play between now and then. Like I said a few weeks ago, there’s another two major champions to be crowned the rest of this year. We’ve got a lot of big tournaments, a lot of good golf to play, and hopefully I can make that team. And like I always say, I don’t just want to make the team, I want to go to Whistling Straits and I want to win the trophy. That’s where my head is at this year, and I feel like I’d be a great part of the team if I do manage to get on it.”
Top: Pádraig Harrington and Shane Lowry on the 17th hole during Sunday's final round
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