Watch: Shane Lowry thrills the Sawgrass galleries with a hole-in-one at notorious 17th hole

“I’m only six back with two rounds to go. I feel like hopefully I can a move this afternoon and keep it going tomorrow.”

Sun, 13 Mar, 2022 - 22:26

Scott Michaux

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Whatever ghosts have been haunting the 17th hole at Sawgrass this week, Shane Lowry banished them on Sunday.

Lowry spun back a pitching wedge from 123 yards in the third round for a hole in one – the 10th ace on the iconic hole in the 40-year history of the Players Championship at the Stadium Course. His ace followed a birdie on the same hole in the second round just a couple of hours earlier.

When Lowry’s ball spun back into the cup at the front of the green, the Irishman broke into a raucous celebration – throwing both hands into the air, double-pumping his fists and then chest-bumping fellow European Ryder Cupper Ian Poulter. He walked the length of the hole slapping hands with fans along the ropes.

After retrieving the ball from the hole, Lowry threw it deep into the crowd. The man who came up with it in the scrum got the ball signed by Lowry at the 18th tee.

On the heels of a birdie at the par-5 16th, Lowry’s ace vaulted him into 20th place at 4-under par and within four shots of the leaders at the time.

It was the first ace at No. 17 in 1,075 shots played since Ryan Moore flushed one in the first round in 2019.

After more than 80 hours of golf, the Players Championship cut was finally made on Sunday afternoon. Rory McIlroy can send a thank you note to Scott Piercy for keeping him in the US $20 million flagship event.

Piercy made a mess of the par-3 17th hole, putting two balls in the water en route to a quadruple 7 that pushed the cut line from 1-over the 2-over. Piercy added another bogey at 18 to miss the cut himself, leaving 71 players to try to get the final two rounds finished before darkness on Monday.

McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler were among seven players who snuck in at T65, keeping all three Irish golfers in the tournament. Séamus Power finished the final two holes of his second round early Sunday morning to stand T22 at 2-under par while Shane Lowry made a late run to get to 1-under, leaving both Irishmen just five and six strokes respectively behind co-leaders Sam Burns and Tom Hoge.

HOLE-IN-ONE AT THE ISLAND GREEN 🚨@ShaneLowryGolf makes the 10th ace on No. 17 in @THEPLAYERSChamp history. pic.twitter.com/HqSYe4XuZh
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 13, 2022

“I’m happy with my finish; I feel like I’m back in the tournament,” Lowry said of his walk-off birdies of the two most dangerous and difficult holes on the course. “I’m only six back with two rounds to go. I feel like hopefully I can a move this afternoon and keep it going tomorrow.”

Lowry joked that he’d tried his best to send McIlroy home, only to have Piercy let him back in.

“I see the 2-over are going to make it now,” Lowry said. “Scott Piercy is making a 7 on 17 and that’s going to get Rory back in. I was trying to do the tour a favour and keep all those 2-overs out so we could finish. More golfers on the course means we’re going to take longer.”

Lowry spent two days busying himself with his kids and watching sports.

“Watched Ireland beat England; Offaly won a match so listened to that on the radio; I watched Italy and Scotland rugby; Gaelic football match on after that,” he said. “I sat around and watched sport all day.

“I came out at like 4 o’clock yesterday and hit a couple balls because I felt like I’d been sitting in a dungeon for two days. It was fine, it is what it is. We obviously got the nice side of the draw, which is great. It would have been really disappointing to miss that cut because when you get a good side of the draw you need to take advantage of it.”

Birdies at 2 and 9 on Sunday were offset by bogeys at 7 and 10 to send Lowry to the final two holes still right on the projected cutline at 1-over.

“I finished nicely today, and that’s true (on Thursday), I’d never really thought of that,” Lowry said of picking up two shots on his late holes in both rounds. “You’re one swing away from going home, you know. It was nice to finish like that.”

Among all of his sport viewing was the Players on Saturday as the other half of the draw was struggling with the high winds that made Nos. 17 and 18 play 1.7 combined strokes over par on average.

“It was brutal,” Lowry said. “I just chipped a little 9-iron into 17 today. It’s a difficult shot but not too difficult seeing Justin Thomas hitting 6-iron in there yesterday.”

Doug Ghim was the only player in Rory’s half of the draw to finish two rounds in the top 15, his pair of 70s to get to 4-under and T11. Bubba Watson and Justin Thomas at 3-under were the only other players on the bad weather side to stand higher than Power going into the third round.

Burns made more than 192 feet of putts on Sunday in his second round to shot 69 and claim a share of the lead with Hoge at 7-under 137. Harold Varner III bounced back from his triple-bogey finish on Thursday to shot another 69 on Sunday and sit tied for third at 6-under with South Africa’s Eric Van Rooyen, whose 67 was the lowest second round.

England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Paul Casey are among six players at 5-under through 36 holes along with Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, Canadians Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith and American Keith Mitchell.

The third round finally began at 6.15 pm Sunday, with threesomes playing off both sides. Power (off No. 1) and Lowry (10) both teed off at 6.48 with a chance to get deep into their third rounds before play got suspended.

McIlroy teed off third from last on the 10th hole at 19:54 with a chance to get half his round completed before a Monday morning restart.

Among the players to miss the cut were Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka.

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