Maurice Brosnan: Birdie's eye view of legendary shots at Augusta National

Birdie's eye view: Maurice Brosnan reckons luck's got nought to do with being directly behind Rory McIlroy for Friday's chip in on 17 and Shane Lowry's Saturday ace.

See ball, hit ball. See chair, sit in chair. Like father, like son. Beside the fifth tee box, Brendan Lowry spotted a vacant seat and took a load off. It was a timely break. He was about to witness history.

Augusta National is steeped in its own traditions and rigid decorum and peculiar interactions, one of which is an honour system that means you can claim a seat if the owner is off wandering. So just beyond the dogleg at the par-4 fifth, Magnolia, beside that finely sculpted green, Lowry senior found a minute for himself.

At that stage, Shane Lowry was already in rare form. He was on his way to a magnificent four-under-par 68, playing alongside his Ryder Cup pal, Tommy Fleetwood. From the fifth tee box, he extended a courtesy: “Great shot, Tom!” 

What followed at the next tee would prove extraordinary. He reached for his 7-iron and swung freely. Lowry’s strike with that club typically carries 185 yards. That par 3 reaches in-and-around 180 yards, played across a steep fall and rise from the shelf of the fifth green to the amphitheatre of the 16th. Three bounces, spun forward and dropped. By the time Brendan Lowry made it to the sixth green, he was in reception of the ultimate Masters privilege: An enthusiastic handshake from a beaming patron in a Kerry jersey.

To be in this nirvana of northeast Georgia on a week like this is to be immeasurably fortunate and curiously alone. That is the nature of the gig. We walk the course alone, we sit down to meals alone, we browse the merchandise shop alone or wander to see if the famous on-course telephones can ring home alone (they can, as it happens).

And yet, as Neil McCauley educated us in Heat, there is a profound difference between being alone and being lonely. You are never disconnected in a place like this.

I’ve been lucky to experience some cool things in my career…today was another @TheMasters ☘️ pic.twitter.com/BRTK7IBGD0

— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) April 11, 2026

That sensational effort saw Lowry become the first player in Masters history to claim two holes-in-one. His first came on the 16th in the final round of 2016 but this was something richer: a flash of instinctive genius that surged him into contention on a restless moving day.

Consider all the threads that flow from one perfect golf shot.

Lowry’s circle walk in a tight-knit group of familiar figures and invested hearts. It includes coach Neil Manchip, who could immediately see that the strike came off the club face “right at it.” Former Irish rugby international Peter O'Mahony and his wife, Jessica follow as well. You don't know how motivational a golf celebration can be until you've heard that straight-talking Cork tone herald a "great f*ckin' putt." There was Murray Fleetwood, Tommy’s stepson. They merge into the swell, combining and contributing to a gathering frenzy that tumbles down the hill.

This is the power of a policy that forbids mobile phones. Every person on the course is present. One celebration instigates another, separate individuals fusing to generate a collective roar that rolls through the towering Cathedral Pines to every section of the property. The Offaly man paraded down to an assembly rising in unison, doffing their hats in salute. Even players on the nearby 16th turned and bowed, drawn by the magnitude of it.

A crowd leans on each other on a course like this. It is instinctive. As the same duo moved into the 13th green, those in the grandstand that look onto the 14th debate the source of another rumble that swept in from the distance. Surely that was an eagle-level magnitude? Manically scanning the makeup of groups in front to see who could have produced that scale of noise. All eyes lingered on the old-school leaderboards for the next update. The gent in the Donegal jersey at the back of the bleachers leaned over to whisper that he is worried about Cam Young. Damn right.

It is a chain of connection and communication and the purest way people can experience something together. On Saturday, we walked the first nine with Lowry and Fleetwood before leaving them at the turn. A hurried dash back to the press building allowed us to take the lay of the land, guzzle water to withstand the sweltering day and confirm that Lowry had actually made history. We found them again at Amen Corner.

There we overheard his father wonder aloud had anyone ever managed multiple aces here. “Eh, I just checked that. The answer is no.” Look what that led to. When did Lowry become aware he was the first? “My dad just said that to me walking up the 18th,” he told us after his round. “It is pretty cool." Imagine.

The day before, we were privileged enough to follow the group that was Cameron Young, Mason Howell and Rory McIlroy. There was no design in this call. It was sheer luck. Time zones and the rhythm of the second round meant it made sense to tag along for the first four, zip back to the press building to get some sort of early-day copy into print and return for the second nine.

All of this is a self-indulgent way of explaining how we ended up directly behind McIlroy’s awesome chip on the 17th. As one knowing reply to our insufferable WhatsApps pointed out, comically well-placed for two defining moments, like Forrest Gump.

The defending champion would explain that he couldn't see the bottom of the flag at that angle. Like all of us on that side, he was reliant on patrons on the opposing gallery to signal if it had a chance. To follow that group up the last, as a magical round received its rightful appreciation, was to feel the essential buzz of the game. Winners? Please. The action is the juice.

Come Saturday, there was something fitting about the reception Lowry received on the same 18th, an ovation befitting his immense talent.

And while the temptation is to remind Irish golf’s powerbrokers that our presence is coinciding with a run of outrageous shot-making (yes, we are available to attend all the majors), there is a serious point here about live sport. 

This is the reason why celebratory limbs on a terrace, a heaving grandstand as a race nears the line a giddy Augusta tee box matter as much as they do. They are testaments to what it is to come together, to belong to something bigger, to be alone and still feel at the centre of the universe.