It was almost fitting that a silent prayer – or possibly something more profane – flashed through Shane Lowry’s mind as his drive drifted towards the rocky stream that wends its way up the middle of the 18th fairway on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
He’d meant to blast it down the left and make a par or birdie to secure the top 13 finish he needed to break into the world’s Top 50 after two years of carrying that burden like an albatross around his neck.
Whatever he was thinking – “You don’t want to know!” was his grinning reply when asked – fate intervened and his Srixon bounded off a rock in the stream and caromed up the right side of the fairway, leaving him a five-wood to the green.
“How lucky did I get there,” a relieved Lowry said. “I carved it up the right, it hit a rock in the hazard and bounced onto the fairway about 40 yards up from where I should have been. But I had so much bad luck at the start of the year, I feel I was due a bit of good luck.”
Masters debut
The 27-year old rifled his approach to 45 feet and two putted for birdie and a six under 66 that gave him solo fifth place in the DP World
Tour Championship
behind
Henrik Stenson
, a €379,318 payday and enough world rankings points to guarantee his rise to 47th in the world today and a trip down Magnolia Lane at his Masters debut next April.
Rory McIlroy, who shot a bogey-free 68 to finish two shots behind Stenson (70) in a tie for second with Justin Rose and Victor Dubuisson on 14 under par, predicted that Lowry will do well at Augusta.
“You need a reasonably sharp short game and that’s really what his game is based on,” said McIlroy, who was left to lament back-to-back double bogeys on Saturday. “He’s a great wedge player and putter, so he’ll do well around there.
“I remember when I got into the Top 50, it’s a great feeling, it really is. You get to pick and choose your schedule a little bit more. Yeah, pleased for him.”
In the two years that have passed since he first caressed the Top 50 with his second tour win in the Portugal Masters, Lowry has found it an almost insuperable barrier.
He missed the chance to play Dubai in 2012, falling ill with shingles. And after finishing with a bogey six here on Saturday, he confessed that his anxiousness to banish the Top 50 curse had become an obsession. He simply had to put it behind him and “man up”.
He did it in style, finishing just three strokes behind Stenson on 13 under par to win €258,264 ($320,000) and an added €121,055 ($150,000) from the bonus pool for finishing 10th in the final Race to Dubai standings with a career best haul of €1,880,856 from his 27 starts.
Pressure
“We talked about it in depth yesterday evening,” Lowry said of his chat with coach
Neil Manchip
about clinching his Masters invitation by December 31st. “I said I don’t want to be going into Abu Dhabi at the start of the year with all this hanging over my head again. I feel like it’s been on top of me for the last two years. It’s pressure I put on myself more than anything else. It gets quite stressful and that’s what I’ve been feeling of late.
“To go out there and shoot 66 with a decent bit of pressure on me was nice. It’s satisfying to do something like that, to shoot a score when you need to.”
Lowry could end the year in the top 30 if he wins the opening event of the 2015 European Tour season, the Nedbank Golf Challenge, in Sun City, South Africa next week.
“I definitely think I can kick on from here now and that’s what I’ll be looking to do,” he said. “I missed a lot of drives this week but my iron play was second to none. I hit a lot of lovely five- and six-irons to give myself chances. Then when I got my scoring clubs in, I was pretty good with them.”
His play in the final round was sublime with birdies at the first, second and seventh setting him on his way.
As for the trip to Augusta, he said: “I’m just excited to get there. It’ll be nice. At the end of the day it is only one tournament and I’m not playing next season just for Augusta. Hopefully that’ll get me into the WGC Cadillac Championship in Doral as well and hopefully I’ll be able to stay there and be in the World Match Play. I’ve got a lot of big tournaments now to be able to focus on.”
