Masters 2026: The time may be now for Shane Lowry at Augusta 

The Offaly man's game may be in the right place for a green jacket bid. 

OH GEORGIA: Shane Lowry of Ireland follows through on his drive off the 18th hole during the second round of The Players Championship. Pic: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

The thought of Rory McIlroy slipping a Green Jacket over Shane Lowry’s shoulders at Augusta National on Sunday week is an enticing prospect for all Irish golf fans five days out from the 90th Masters.

When both Lowry’s coach, Neil Manchip, and Pádraig Harrington can embrace the possibility, then that is really something to whet the appetite ahead of the opening major of 2026.

Of course, McIlroy himself will have something to say about that as he chases membership of another elite group of the game’s greats a year on from completing the Grand Slam of major titles with his dramatic play-off victory over Justin Rose. Joining Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in the pantheon of golfers to have won all four men’s professional majors was the culmination of an 11-year effort to complete the quartet of titles. If McIlroy were to successfully defend his Masters crown 12 months on, he would be just the fourth to do so after Nicklaus (1965-6), Nick Faldo (88-89) and Woods (2001-02).

For the romantics amongst us, however, and anyone who witnessed the wild scenes at Royal Portrush in 2019 when Lowry won The Open, a Masters presentation ceremony involving two Irishmen would be golfing nirvana.

Manchip, who will fly to Georgia on Sunday after three days of practice with his star pupil in Florida, has nothing but confidence in Lowry. Speaking after Golf Ireland’s season launch at Carton House earlier this week, and having heard golf analysts Dylan Beirne give statistical backing to the importance of experience around Augusta in achieving success at the Masters, the governing body’s High Performance Director switched focus to next week’s must-watch major.

With 34 rounds under his belt from 10 previous appearances, including a tie for third place in 2022, the 38-year-old will, if all goes to plan, be close to Beirne’s analysis that it takes around 40 trips around the legendary par-72, 7,565-yard course to give a golfer a realistic chance of victory.

Manchip, in the audience as Beirne delivered his ingredients for Masters success, totted up Lowry’s rounds to date and said: “I think it must be about that. Maybe three missed cuts, I think. So not far off. The data fits. Yeah, let's do it.” More importantly, he believes Lowry can win.

“Yeah, I do, yeah. Absolutely, yeah. His game is great, he has the approach play, the putting, the whole lot. And like every player in the field next week, everybody will just be hoping it comes together at the right time.” Triple major winner Harrington shares Manchip’s confidence. Speaking in an interview with Golf Ireland recorded for last Monday’s 2026 launch, the reigning ISPS Handa Senior Open and US Senior Open champion laid out Lowry’s suitability for Augusta National.

“Shane sets up very well for the golf course now,” Harrington said. “He's turned himself into one of the best iron players in the game of golf, an elite iron player and that is so important at Augusta. I think he likes the golf course.

“Some people will depend on it on any given week, how good your putting is, how good you are mentally. The two important things at Augusta really now is you've got to drive the ball very straight, and you've got to be a great iron player, which do play into Shane's hands.

“He's in nice form. The fact that he hasn't won earlier in the year is a good thing, probably, going into a major, he's still really hungry for that big performance, not that he wouldn't be hungry going into a major. I think he could be in a nice place. Game is obviously very good and maybe, not in Ireland right now, but maybe they'll be talking about DeChambeau, they'll be talking about Rory, they'll be talking about Scheffler. Maybe there'll be slightly less stress on him for a few days anyway into the tournament.

“Yeah, he definitely could be in there. Wouldn't that be a fantastic story? The two of them, unbelievable, Rory putting the jacket on Shane, that would be unbelievable. But certainly he's a man who could do it, and he's in the right place going into the event to do it.” Harrington still marvels at McIlroy’s extraordinary mental strength in the 2025 final round and extra play-off hole to rescue victory from the jaws of defeat and he cannot see anything matching that last day for drama.

“I don't think it can. It just can’t. It doesn't matter what happens.

“I think everybody in Ireland, for sure, was invested in Rory, not just winning the Grand Slam but the way he won the Grand Slam. The highs and lows of that round was close to ridiculous. How many times he won it and lost it.

“It was the greatest round of golf probably we've ever witnessed and for it to be at the Masters, for it to have the meaning… when you look at it, a lot of his emotions and reactions on the day was like a man who had never won a tournament. He was like a rookie going in there trying to win his first event, still showing how much of a competitor he is. It's incredible.

“Rory had really won everything in the game of golf up to that, it just shows, you know, wanting something so badly. Three or four times in that round, he had it won, and then lost it, then came back. It was definitely crazy stuff.

“It's good to see something like that going through that for everybody, not just for a person like myself, a professional golfer, an elite player. It's good for the amateurs to see that, because we all have an emotional rollercoaster during a final round when we're trying to win, especially if it means something to us.

“And there, on the biggest stage, we can see it with a player who's accomplished nearly everything in the game, and it was some rollercoaster. It probably should be one of the greatest mental lessons for every golfer in the game of golf, to see somebody like Rory go through those highs and lows emotionally in a round of golf.” Manchip is not shying away from visualising a Lowry triumph this time around, nor the tantalising image of him receiving the famous Green Jacket from McIlroy.

“Yeah, like imagine holding the San Maguire or the FA Cup or the World Cup, of course everybody does that. You'd be lying if you said you didn't think that way.

“Look, it's a really exciting week ahead and we're all looking forward to it. With Rory's exploits last year and making that incredible achievement to win the Grand Slam, you can't put into words how impressive it is to do something like that in the career that he's had.

“As Paddy (Harrington) was saying earlier, it will be tough to beat last year, but we'll give it our best shot.”