The numbers game is stacking up nicely for Shane Lowry who has bounced back from that missed cut in the Phoenix Open with a tied-14th finish in the Genesis and most recently a tied-fifth place finish in the Honda Classic: the upshot of it all is that Lowry has worked his way up the FedEx Cup standings on the PGA Tour and has leapfrogged Billy Horschel up to 19th in the updated official world rankings.
It is the move in the FedEx Cup standings, though, which has most satisfied Lowry. “I was a little bit lost,” he confessed of how he felt following that missed cut in Phoenix. “I was 180th or something in the FedEx Cup and you’re like, ‘I need to make some FedEx Cup points soon’. I’ve had two nice weeks and hopefully I can build on this going forward now.”
Lowry’s progress in the FedEx Cup standings – from which the top 70 make the field for the BMW Championship and only the top 30 make it to the Tour Championship to end the season stateside – has seen him move to 89th in the list as he continues his busy itinerary with a fourth straight week of tournament play.
Although “disappointed” not to have challenged for the title in Sunday’s final round of the Honda, which was won by Chris Kirk in a playoff with Chris Cole, Lowry admitted: “I hit the ball well enough to get into contention but just didn’t hole the putts.” However, he felt there were “a lot of positives” to take away. “My golf game is in a place where I’m happy with it. I’m going into a nice part of the season.”
Next up for Lowry is this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill – one of the elevated $20 million purse tournaments on the PGA Tour – but also a place where he has struggled in the past. He skipped the tournament last year and, in four past appearances, has missed the cut on each occasion. His scoring average is 73.75 and he has never managed to break 70 at the course. It would be a good time to change those numbers!
Lowry’s schedule will see him play in the API and next week’s The Players, with Bay Hill’s purse set at $20 million and Sawgrass’s at $25 million.
Given the API’s increased purse and status as one of the PGA Tour’s elevated tournaments, an exceptionally strong field has been assembled with the world number one spot again on the line, with either Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy in position to knock Jon Rahm off with a win.
Both McIlroy (a winner at Arnie’s place in 2018) and Séamus Power return to tournament play after deciding to skip the Honda Classic, while Pádraig Harrington makes it a quartet of Irish players in the field at Bay Hill after being given a sponsor’s exemption into the event.
