Inconsistency hampers Shane Lowry at Pebble Beach

Three events into his PGA Tour season and it's fair to say it's been a mixed bag for Shane Lowry with the bad so far outweighing the good in 2018.

Two weeks ago he was well-placed after the opening round of the Farmers Insurance Open before slumping to a second round 78 to miss the cut while last week was a so-so performance at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, resulting in a tied-65th finish.

On Sunday at Pebble Beach he closed with a disappointing 74 to finish well down the field after being within one shot of the lead at one stage on Thursday afternoon.

At the top of the leaderboard Ted Potter Jr held off a chasing pack which included the likes of world number one Dustin Johnson to claim the second PGA Tour victory of his career.

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Tied for the lead with Johnson at the start of the day it was the unfancied Potter who was unflappable on the California coast while 17-time tour winner Johnson fell away.

For Lowry there are plenty of signs that his best golf is just around the corner, if he can only iron out the inconsistencies.

Even during Sunday’s final round his game portrayed some of those frayed edges as three sloppy bogeys on the back nine cost him a higher finish.

Perhaps the Genesis Open – which begins on Thursday – will provide a better chance for Lowry with precision the key at the tree-lined Riviera, something that should allow the Offalyman’s short game skills shine.

On another perfect day in Monterey Johnson was heavily fancied to claim a third win at Pebble Beach but all did not go to plan as he failed to get going with four bogeys and four birdies adding up to a disappointing final round of 72 to tie second at 14 under with Phil Mickelson, Chez Reavie and Jason Day.

Left-handed Potter, who was chasing his first PGA Tour win since 2012 after a season spent on the secondary Web.com Tour last year, was semmingly unfazed by his final round pairing with the world number one as he shot into the lead on 17 under with four birdies in a stretch from the second to the Par 3 seventhwhere he pitched in for a two.

From there he went pretty much unchallenged to the finish with 11 consecutive pars leaving him to sign for a round of 69 and a three shot victory.

Mickelson mounted somewhat of a final day challenge in shooting 67 to set a clubhouse target at 14 under but Potter was never faltering.

Pebble Beach Collated Collated forth round scores & totals (USA unless stated, par 72):

270 Ted Potter, Jr. 68 71 62 69
273 Dustin Johnson 67 64 70 72, Jason Day (Aus) 69 65 69 70, Phil Mickelson 69 65 72 67, Chez Reavie 67 72 66 68
274 Kevin Streelman 65 69 72 68
275 Scott Stallings 72 69 68 66
277 Grayson Murray 74 68 69 66, Brian Gay 69 69 68 71, Jimmy Walker 68 69 73 67, Paul Casey (Eng) 67 70 70 70, Patrick Rodgers 70 65 69 73, Kevin Chappell 73 68 69 67, Troy Merritt 67 67 69 74
278 Aaron Wise 65 69 74 70, Russell Henley 68 70 70 70, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 71 69 68 70, Russell Knox (Sco) 71 70 67 70, Brandon Harkins 68 71 73 66
279 Kevin Na 70 68 69 72, Branden Grace (Rsa) 68 72 71 68, Ryan Armour 70 70 69 70, Scott Piercy 71 71 67 70, Brandt Snedeker 71 70 69 69, Jordan Spieth 72 66 70 71
280 Steve Stricker 69 65 70 76, Sam Saunders 72 66 72 70, William McGirt 73 69 66 72, Ben Martin 68 75 66 71, Jon Rahm (Spa) 67 67 70 76, James Hahn 74 68 70 68, Kyung Ju Choi (Kor) 69 70 69 72, Tyrone Van Aswegen (Rsa) 67 68 73 72, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 69 69 70 72
281 Peter Malnati 67 69 72 73, Chris Stroud 68 68 75 70, Jason Kokrak 70 67 74 70, Pat Perez 68 70 69 74, Chesson Hadley 68 74 70 69, Patrick Cantlay 66 72 72 71, Bubba Watson 68 71 70 72, Brice Garnett 71 72 68 70
282 Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 68 71 69 74, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 68 72 69 73, Beau Hossler 65 67 74 76, Shane Lowry (Irl) 67 73 68 74
283 Trey Mullinax 72 67 72 72, Nick Watney 70 69 72 72, Rob Oppenheim 67 73 72 71, Rod Pampling (Aus) 69 73 70 71, Eric Axley 69 67 74 73, Keith Mitchell 67 73 72 71, Bronson Burgoon 70 70 71 72, Cameron Tringale 70 68 71 74
284 Joel Dahmen 71 72 69 72, Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 70 69 72 73, Vaughn Taylor 70 70 72 72, Zecheng Dou (Chn) 67 74 71 72, Bryson DeChambeau 70 69 70 75, Johnson Wagner 73 69 69 73, Daniel Summerhays 70 68 70 76
285 Ricky Barnes 70 71 69 75, Derek Fathauer 69 72 71 73, Matt Kuchar 66 71 75 73, Jonathan Byrd 73 71 68 73
286 Denny McCarthy 72 66 74 74, Jonathan Randolph 69 69 72 76
287 JT Poston 71 69 72 75, Julian Suri 66 67 76 78, Sam Ryder 73 69 67 78, Will Zalatoris 67 69 73 78
288 Rory Sabbatini (Rsa) 68 74 68 78
289 Sean O'Hair 69 70 73 77, Ryan Blaum 68 71 70 80
290 Alex Cejka (Ger) 69 72 71 78

Cut to take place at end of Round 3 for scores of no more than 212