Shane Lowry sees funny side of ‘stupidest things I've ever done' after crushing US Open missed cut
The world number 12 arrived in Pittsburgh with great form and high hopes after working hard on his game in his bid for his second major title.
But after following a 79 with 78 to finish 10 shots outside the projected cut mark on 17-over, he could at least see the funny side after incurring a one-stroke penalty for picking up his ball on the 14th green before marking it.
'It's probably one of the stupidest things I've ever done,' Lowry said with a grin after he forgot to mark his 55-foot par putt at the 14th and walked off with a double bogey six.
'I just picked the ball up. I had the ball my hand turned around and (caddie) Darren (Reynolds) he basically said to me, 'What are you doing?'
'I put it back down and marked it and played on and I knew it was gonna get penalised. I didn't know if it was going to be one or two, but yeah, maybe I was just my mind was somewhere else, but I fought. I still tried.
'I fought over every shot. I still tried over every shot. And that's all you can do, I suppose, in a week like this.'
Lowry hit the ball well off the tee but he suffered on the greens, three-putting four times over the two days.
Asked what went wrong at Oakmont, where just three players were under par as he headed for home, he said: 'I don't know to be honest.
'I drove it in play a lot yesterday, did what I was supposed to off the tee, and then just didn't have my game that I've had for the last while.
'And then I really struggled on the greens yesterday and the round got away from me here and that was it.
'I let it sort of do (to me) what I said it wouldn't do. But that's Oakmont. That's the US Open.'
Lowry made one eagle two and just one birdie against 10 bogeys and five double bogeys over the course of 36 gruelling holes alongside Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose.
'I just made, obviously, too many doubles, too many big mistakes, a.nd then when I got a couple of chances, I didn't convert them,' he. said.
'I didn't really do much right, to be honest, other than I drove the ball as good as I've probably driven the ball in a long time. So, yeah, weird, weird kind of couple of days.'
He was ranked 153rd out of 156 for strokes gained putting but believes he's far closer to winning again than his results this week suggest.
'I've been doing well this year, and I felt great coming in here,' he said of his game. 'That's what this game does here. It's been a strange sort of year where I've been having some great results, but very rarely feeling very satisfied with myself. 'And this week is back to the drawing board after this week.'
Nine-over starting the day, he dropped five shots in his first four holes, running up a double bogey six at the short par four second after flying long into a bunker with his second and failing to escape the sand at the first attempt.
'With scores like that, you can look a million miles away out there, but I feel like I was good in a lot of parts today, just obviously got a horrendous start,' he explained.
'And you know what happened on a second, if I try to wedge there, I can spin it off the green and have 40 yards for my third shot. It's just hard.
'Maybe I should have been more aggressive off the tee, but what happened. happened.
'Three people are under par and the best players in the world are here. And yeah, it's just hard.'
He plays his fourth event in a row at the signature event Travelers Championship next week but admitted he can't wait to get back to Ireland the following week,
'Travelers next week and then I've got three weeks off at home in Ireland, which I'm very excited for,' Lowry said.
'I've been away from my wife and kids now for a few weeks, and there's another week next week.
'So I'm looking forward to getting home and getting back to Ireland, seeing all my friends and family. I haven't home since Christmas.
'I'll take a couple of days off to kind of reset, and then I get up to Travelers and then try doing my best up there, because it's a big event on the PGA Tour and hopefully move on from there.'
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The Irish Sun
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