Lowry wilts in Singapore but Masters hopes are still high
Shane Lowry ran out of steam to finish nine shots behind playing partner Jesper Svensson in the Porsche Singapore Classic. But he’ll be drawing on his 39-under total for his last four events rather than the back-nine 41 that cost him his title chance at Laguna National.
The Offaly man (36) made the 17,000km trip to the Far East to continue his recent run of hot form and head to the Masters next month with his tail up.
Having raced to the turn in four-under and picked up another shot at the 11th to get within a stroke of the lead in yesterday’s final round, the 2019 Open champion would have fancied his chances of posting a formidable target.
Instead, he wilted coming down the stretch as a combination of jet lag, 33-degree heat, 90pc humidity, and four weeks on the road took its toll, and he dropped five shots in his last eight holes.
A final-round 72 for a share of 29th on eight-under was not what he hoped for at Laguna National. But he will look back at the last month and glean confidence from the fact that he made three eagles and 79 birdies – including an eagle and 21 birdies in Singapore – in 288 holes.
Three bogeys in a row from the 12th killed his Sunday charge and while he made a birdie at the 16th, he found water on the last two holes, finishing double bogey, bogey to head back to Florida with little to show for his efforts.
After arriving in Singapore determined to maintain his good form – “You never want to go into a Major off the back of a bad result,” he said in the build-up – he can only look on the bright side.
A trip to Tampa for the Val sp ar Championship might have made more sense, but the good news is that he has two weeks to replenish his batteries and sharpen his game before the trip down Magnolia Lane.
Svensson will not make a Masters appearance just yet, but the Swedish rookie (27) put on a final-round exhibition alongside Lowry and China’s Li Haotong.
They started the day tied for 13th, five shots behind Australia’s David Micheluzzi, but it was the Swede who ended up pocketing the €392,403 winner’s cheque.
The Challenge Tour graduate, who had two runner-up finishes already this season, made two eagles and eight birdies in a course record equalling nine-under 63 to set the target at 17-under.
He was joined on 17-under by Thailand’s Kiradech Aphibarnrat, who eagled the last to card an eight-under 64 before succumbing to Svensson’s par on their third trip down the 18th in sudden death after they’d gone birdie-par the first two times.
“It’s been a lot of good golf, so it was nice to finally come out on top,” said Svensson, who was second in the Bahrain Classic and the Investec South African Open earlier this season.
“It’s very hard to win, so it’s really nice. To win on my first season out here, I couldn’t have dreamt of it. It’s always been a dream to be a winner on the DP World Tour and to achieve it feels amazing.
“I think combined with the Challenge Tour last year and the beginning of this season, I’ve had five second places for the last year, so I really wanted to come out on top here and it felt great to finally achieve it here.”
A host of Irish players aim to make it to the DP World Tour from the Challenge Tour and Gary Hurley took a step in the right direction yesterday when he closed with a bogey-free, six-under 66 to finish tied 16th on six-under in the Kolkata Challenge at Royal Calcutta.
The West Waterford man jumped 15 places to 41st in the race for 20 cards via Road to Mallorca rankings, with Conor Purcell 39th after a 73 left him 48th on level-par in India.
That was 16 strokes behind Denmark’s Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen (24), who took a four-shot lead into the final round and carded 71 to win by two shots from India’s Rahil Gangjee and England’s David Horsey.