Many ifs and maybes for runner-up Lowry

Shane Lowry collected the biggest prize in his career thanks to a monster putt at the final hole but though the grin was huge and the ovation even bigger, there was one vital missing ingredient – a victory.

For all the positives that will accompany Lowry’s second place in the BMW PGA Championship yesterday evening, and there are plenty, there will also be the nagging feeling of a tournament win that got away.

His final-round, four-under-par 68 was a great round to overhaul a dominant overnight leader in Thomas Bjorn.

It was good enough to earn him €527,770 that eclipsed the €375,000 cheque he picked up for winning the 2012 Portugal Masters and will catapult him up the world rankings from his current position of 142 after a miserable start to the year.

Furthermore, it could prove the launchpad for a successful rest of the season, which begins today at Walton Heath, where he will try to repeat his 2011 US Open qualifier success.

Yet for all that, there will be the knowledge he led this tournament by three strokes as he stood on the 13th and could have given not just his season but also his career a fantastic boost had he hung on.

Instead, Lowry double-bogeyed the 13th and then bogeyed 15 to leave himself with what might have beens.

“Obviously I’m happy but I know I’m going to be sitting in my hotel room tonight and 13’s going to be going through my head. At 15, I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever hit a better iron shot, 225 to the flag and I pitched a five iron two yards past it. I don’t know where it came out of. I was just trying to hit it hard enough to carry the front bunker. I felt like I got a bit unlucky there.

“I hit a good putt on 16 and it just didn’t move as much as I thought and then I felt like I hit a great putt on 17. I hit a lovely pitch which released a lot more than I thought. I hit a great putt from there, as I knew I needed to hole it and missed it. Then when I was walking down the 18th, I heard the cheer, so I knew Rory was after making birdie, hence the reason I went for the green. It was a very ambitious shot but that’s what I’m here to do, to try and win. I got a bit fortunate and managed to hole that (50-foot) putt, which is a second on my own, lot of world ranking points, a lot of Race To Dubai points, so happy enough but there are ifs and buts, I suppose.”

Time will help the healing process and Lowry was already reflecting on the quality of opposition he had vied with at Wentworth.

“At the end of the day I was out there playing the biggest tournament on the European Tour leading by three with seven to play, ahead of Rory McIlroy, Thomas Bjorn and Luke Donald.

“That’s the company I want to be in, that’s the company I feel like I deserve to be in and I’m looking forward to being there again.”

Not that he will try and force things, Lowry adding his aim was “not to put too much pressure on me to kick on”.

“I am going to Sweden next week (for the Nordea Masters), if all of a sudden I go to Sweden and feel like I should be trying to win, it can jump up and bite you as well.

“After a good week like this, you just need to sit back and take the positives. At the end of the day you are standing on the first tee next Thursday with150 guys and everyone has the same chance of winning again.

“This was very, very close to being my week and I would have loved to win this one. I’ve said it before, I really believe I can win this one day. I really love the place and feel like it suits my game.”