'I should have shot 61,' laments Lowry. McIlroy rues cooled putter

“Probably the most disappointed anyone can ever be shooting 62," reflected Shane Lowry

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, reacts after missing a putt on the 13th hole during the third round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at the Valhalla Golf Club, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Shane Lowry stood over his 12-footer on the last and knew what was at stake – a never-before-done 61 in a major championship. On a day when he’d already made a career-best 160 feet of putts, he just needed 12 more to make history.

“I should have shot 61,” he said with a chagrinned smile after becoming the first European and fifth player all-time to shoot 62 in a major on Saturday at Valhalla Golf Club. His 9-under round vaulted him from T29 into the one of the final two PGA Championship pairings on Sunday at 13-under par.

“I enjoyed it. I enjoyed every minute of it, obviously,” Lowry said. “Probably the most disappointed anyone can ever be shooting 62. I knew what was at stake.

“Just didn’t hit the ball hard enough. Had it on a good read and just broke away from the hole. Look, I went out there with a job to do today, and my job was to try to get myself back in the tournament, and I definitely did that."

Lowry put on a complete-game clinic on Saturday as he duelled with Ryder Cup teammate Justin Rose (64) in a torrid match that saw them shoot a combined 16-under.

Lowry retired to the driving range Friday afternoon to solve a “wipey cut” that was interfering with his typical driving excellence. Given the surge in his putting stats, he knew he was close to putting all the pieces together at Valhalla.

“Honestly, if I can find my find my driver a little bit better this weekend, I could do something tomorrow,” Lowry said after his pair of opening 69s had him lurking seven shots off the halfway lead.

With the driver sorted, “something” showed up in the way of a front-nine 29 and a couple of long birdie bombs on the back en route to a record-tying 62 to put the Offaly man firmly in the thick of it through three rounds of the PGA Championship.

Taking full advantage of a soft course absolutely there for the taking, Lowry got off to the ideal start he needed. Rolling in putts of 14, 13, 19 and 7 feet, he rattled off four successive birdies on Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 to vault into the top 10.

He wasn’t done yet. He two-putted for birdie on the par-5 seventh and buried another 16-footer on the ninth to fire a Valhalla record 6-under 29 on the front – climbing into a tie for third at that point just two behind co-leaders Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa seven holes behind him.

Lowry is the first player to break 30 on either the front or back nine in four PGA Championships at Valhalla, and the first to do it in a PGA since Kevin Kisner on the back side at Bellerive CC in 2018.

Despite a missed a chance on the par-5 10th when his approach to the par-5 settled deep in its own divot in the sand and his bunker shot skipped off the back of the green, Lowry reignited his momentum with back-to-back birdie bombs from 37 and 32 feet on the island 13th and par-3 14th that each drew roars from the gallery and gained him a brief share of the lead at 12-under.

He knocked one to 6 feet on 17 for another birdie and set up his history-making opportunity on the par-5 finisher. Both his drive and lay up found rough, but he was able to wedge it to 12 feet and give himself a downhill look at 61.

“When you go out in 29, you think, ‘Wow, I have a good day going here,’” he said. “I think when I holed the putt on 14, I was like, here we go, yeah, this is a good chance. … Obviously to birdie 17, that’s when I knew I just really wanted to hit a good tee shot on the last. I pushed it a little bit and laid it up, and I hit a great wedge shot, and yeah, obviously just missed the putt.

“I knew I just really wanted to hole it. Probably too much. I kind of stood back and allowed myself to enjoy the moment. It was a pretty cool moment to have. It would have been a pretty cool moment to kind of seal the deal and do it.” 

Only three times prior to Lowry in the prior 25 PGA Championships has a player moved from outside the top 25 to inside the top five on moving day. One of those three was Pádraig Harrington in 2008, who climbed from T26 to T4 en route to his victory at Oakland Hills.

Rory McIlroy had the potential to shoot a similar round to Lowry, but his putting performance was nowhere near the same calibre.

McIlroy got off to a clumsy start when he mailed his approach from the fairway over the first green into a bunker and failed to get up and down. He got his first birdie on the 297-yard drivable par-4 fourth, but he was still stuck in neutral as he was on Friday as others pushed ahead of him on the leaderboard.

But McIlroy finally flipped a switch and get going with a four-hole run of birdies on 7, 8, 9 and 10 to climb to 9-under and into the top five. Only a 21-foot putt on No. 8 was longer than 3 feet in the stretch.

But McIlroy’s putter let him down on good looks from 11, 8 and 14 feet on Nos. 11, 12 and 13, then he missed a 7-footer to save par on 14. Another bogey at 16 and a finishing birdie at 18 polished off a 68 and left him six shots off the lead.

“Yeah, really got it going around the turn there to get to 4-under, and then I kept hitting good shots and had good looks at 11, 12 and 13, 15,” McIlroy said. “Then I made two bogeys with a missed putt on 14, a three-putt. Yeah, there was a six-hole stretch there, seven-hole stretch, where just sort of the putter cooled on me. Depending on what happens tomorrow … if I look back on the tournament, I may rue that six-hole stretch where I wasn’t able to hole any putts.” 

Having seen Lowry shoot a 62 just in front of him, McIlroy knows what can be done.

“I have to go out there and try to shoot a low one,” he said. “I putted really well on Thursday, and then just the last couple days it’s sort of deserted me. Yeah, I need the putter to sort of heat up again, and with everything else it’s doing, there’s certainly another low one in me.”