Lowry falls away in final round at US Masters

AFTER storming into contention with a brilliant third day, Shane Lowry fell away in Sunday's final round at the US Masters in Augusta.

The Clara man was in serious contention as he teed off on Sunday evening, lying in fourth place, just two shots behind the leaders, Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy.

Unfortunately, his chances of victory had evaporated early on and he was not in the hunt as Rory McIlroy held his nerve late on to retain his title.

After playing superbly consistent golf in the first three days, Lowry finished with an eight over 80 and plummeted down the leader-board to finish joint 30^th.

He started off with a bogey 5 on Sunday, recovered with a birdie on the second but a bogey and double bogey on 4 and 5 scuppered his victory chances. He never recovered from that and had a second double bogey on the 11^th, followed by a bogey on 12. Lowry did well to birdie the par five 13 and 15 but these sandwiched another bogey on 14. He had a third double on 16 and finished a disappointing day with a bogey on 18.

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The Offaly man had a sensational third round, shooting -4 with a hole in one at the par three sixth transforming his round. That ace put him into joint second at that stage and he reflected afterwards: “That's wild, isn't it? Made one a couple of weeks ago in Houston. You don't ever expect to make a hole-in-one. I just couldn't believe it. Obviously, you know, you're out there, and you're in the hunt at the Masters and you're making hole-in-one, it's pretty cool.”

The third round is known as “moving day” and that was certainly the case on Saturday as the defending champion Rory McIlroy came back into the pack after an overnight lead of six shots.

McIlroy WAS still joint top with Young on -11 with American Sam Burns one shot back on -10. Lowry is on -9 with Jason Day and Justin Rose on -8. Scottie Scheffler was on -7 and he emerged as McIlroy's main challenger but left himself with too much to do, though he was centimetres away from a play off.

Lowry also had birdies on 2, 8, 10 and 14 on Saturday while bogeys on 9 and 11 stopped him from climbing higher.

He had shot three sub par rounds before that with a -2 70 on Thursday and a -3 69 on Friday. Saturday's round put him right in the mix and it looked set up for him to banish the memory of some devastating near misses earlier this year, as he let victory slip from his grasp.

Lowry was chasing a second major title since his 2019 British Open win and his disappointment was cushioned by a healthy pay cheque of $146,250 but at this stage of his career, titles is more important than money – and he will now be focusing on getting into the winners' enclosure in the rest of the season.