Bad luck, a sour taste on the tongue: the squally rain relentlessly splattered down on Shane Lowry as he appraised his final shots of the Honda Classic at PGA National in Palm Beach, Florida, in a dramatic finale to the tournament where he ultimately came up short.
While Daniel Berger had started out as a red-hot favourite, the local Floridian endured a nightmare final round start - dropping four shots inside his opening six holes - that brought his pursuers into the picture and Lowry’s bogey-free round enabled him to leapfrog his way up the leaderboard.
But, just not enough.
Instead, it was Austria's Sepp Straka - who shot a final round 66 for 270, 10-under-par - who claimed a breakthrough win on the PGA Tour.
Lowry went bogey-free on his final round but fell victim in a way to the arrival of a weather front on his homeward run which went against him. Lowry’s 67 for a total of 271 gave him a solo runner-up finish.
Lowry started the final round five shots adrift of Berger but had moved into outright lead with an error-free front nine run with birdies on the first and fourth and a further birdie on the 11th only to par his way home.
For a time, it looked as if Lowry was destined to claim the title and the Offalyman went two shots in front coming down the stretch. And, then, it didn’t happen, as he fell victim to a rain squall that changed the dynamics of the finale.
Straka, though, stole the show as the first Austrian winner on the PGA Tour who finished with three birdies on his closing five holes for 66 for 270 that gave him a one stroke winning margin over Lowry: “I really don’t know how to feel right now, as a PGA Tour winner,” said Sraka of his breakthrough win on the circuit.
In the Jonsson Workwear Open - a co-sanctioned event on the Challenge Tour and the Sunshine Tour in Durban - JC Rtchie claimed back-to-back wins with a final round 71 doe 26-under-par total of 260, six shots clear of runner-up Chris Mivis. Northern Irish teenager Tom McKibbin shot a final round 72 for 271 to finish in tied-seventh, while John Murphy had a 69 for 274 in tied-18th.
Collated final round scores and totals in the Honda Classic (USA unless stated, Irish in bold, Par 70)
270 Sepp Straka (Aut) 71 64 69 66
271 Shane Lowry (Irl) 70 67 67 67
272 Kurt Kitayama 64 69 71 68
273 Daniel Berger 65 65 69 74
276 Alexander Noren (Swe) 69 69 70 68, Gary Woodland 69 69 71 67
277 Chris Kirk 65 68 71 73, Matthias Schwab (Aut) 67 72 70 68
278 Lee Hodges 71 66 71 70, John Huh 72 65 71 70, Keith Mitchell 71 70 69 68, Sam Ryder 71 68 69 70, Brian Stuard 70 70 69 69, Adam Svensson (Can) 69 65 71 73
279 Mark Hubbard 70 64 75 70
280 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) 68 70 70 72, Billy Horschel 68 74 68 70, Brooks Koepka 68 72 71 69, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) 70 70 71 69, Kevin Streelman 71 71 68 70, Nick Taylor (Can) 77 65 71 67, Cameron Young 68 73 74 65, Beau Hossler 69 69 71 71, Martin Contini (Arg) 68 70 70 72
281 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa) 69 71 75 66, Bill Haas 70 72 71 68, Matthew NeSmith 72 70 70 69, Taylor Pendrith (Can) 69 69 74 69, Chase Seiffert 69 66 75 71
282 Lucas Glover 69 72 74 67, Denny McCarthy 71 71 71 69, Trey Mullinax 72 70 71 69, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) 75 65 72 70, Guillermo Mito Pereira (Chi) 68 71 72 71, Ian Poulter (Eng) 71 71 69 71, J. J. Spaun 71 71 72 68, Callum Tarren (Eng) 68 73 75 66, Nick Watney 71 67 71 73, Dylan Wu 68 73 69 72, Rick Lamb 72 70 70 70, Andrew Kozan 67 75 68 72
283 Rickie Fowler 72 70 70 71, Brian Gay 76 66 73 68, J. T. Poston 70 70 73 70, Davis Riley 70 72 71 70, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 69 71 72 71, Lee Westwood (Eng) 69 70 71 73
284 Mackenzie Hughes (Can) 70 70 70 74, Stephan Jaeger (Ger) 68 73 75 68, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) 70 72 69 73, Rory Sabbatini (Svk) 65 74 72 73, Brendon Todd 74 67 74 69, Martin Trainer 69 72 74 69, Danny Willett (Eng) 67 72 77 68
285 Brett Drewitt (Aus) 74 68 75 68, Russell Knox (Sco) 69 69 75 72, David Lipsky 68 71 74 72, Roger Sloan (Can) 69 68 75 73, Alex Smalley 71 70 72 72, Curtis Thompson 70 72 68 75, Peter Uihlein 67 72 78 68, Samuel Stevens 70 68 73 74, Vaughn Taylor 73 68 75 69
286 Justin Lower 73 69 74 70, Patrick Rodgers 68 74 72 72
287 Bronson Burgoon 68 72 77 70, Garrick Higgo (Rsa) 68 72 75 72, William McGirt 68 70 75 74, Aaron Rai (Eng) 67 72 73 75
288 Joshua Creel 72 69 73 74, Ryan Palmer 68 74 75 71
292 Austin Cook 72 70 80 70, Robert Streb 72 69 81 70
