
Shane Lowry set for Truist Championship final round battle with ‘good friend' as he looks to end solo PGA Tour drought
IRELAND's Shane Lowry will head into Sunday's final round of the Truist Championship tied for the lead.
The
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Shane Lowry is looking to win his first solo event on the American PGA Tour since 2019
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He'll play alongside Ryder Cup pal Sepp Straka on Sunday after in Philadelphia
The world number 12 sits on 14-under-par alongside Austria's Sepp Straka, who posted a 66 to join Lowry three shots clear of the chasing field.
Overnight leader
A one-over-par 71 saw him drop back to 11 under, tied for third with
Hideki Matsuyama made the biggest move of the day with a brilliant seven-under 63, lifting him to 10 under and fifth place.
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Lowry, who will looking to win his first solo
The pair teamed up in the 2023
Both have been paired together in a final round before, Straka saw off Shane Lowry by one-stroke to win the 2022 Cognizant Classic at PGA National.
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Speaking to Amanda Balionis after his third round, Lowry said he's looking forward to playing alongside pal Straka.
He said: "I'm driving the ball pretty straight, not very far but it's going on the fairway, and once I get myself on the fairway I can be dangerous."
Major new outdoor attraction opens and it's great for little ones
"If I can hole a few putts you never know.
"This is a tough game and a tough tour and it's hard to win out here. You just have to keep putting yourself in position week after week and do your best. I'm going to give it my best.
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"I'm playing a good friend of mine in Sepp, my Ryder Cup partner. Hopefully, one of us can get the job done."
Straka has already won this season at the American Express Championship at La Jolla.
The final par get their rounds underway at 7pm Irish local time.
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RTÉ News
5 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Consistent Shane Lowry returns to site of near glory
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The PGA tends to be solely about the players. In the US Open, the course becomes a leading character. A golf-watching public wearied by week after week of monotonous birdie-fests, watching Scottie Scheffler hit 32-under par, appear hungry for a bracingly 'traditional' US Open style test. (The Memorial Tournament a couple of weeks ago being an honourable exception.) In that context, one senses there'll be disappointment among the purists if the winner is six-under par again. But we have been here before. In 2017, future LIV defector Kevin Na uploaded a short video of himself pegging his ball into a tangle of rough which he claimed was just off the fairway at Erin Hills. After a couple of futile efforts to hack it out of there, he issued a plea for past champions to be put in charge of course set-up - rather than the sadistic elders of the USGA, being the obvious inference. Then, the following Sunday, Brooks Koepka won his first US Open on 16-under par. 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After the opening round at LA Country Club in 2023, when both Rickie Fowler and Xander Schauffele shot 62, there were fears among the traditionalists that the fearsome US Open tests of yesteryear were no longer challenging the modern players. The sense this time around is we could be in for some proper carnage. "The stories that came out of here from last Monday was that it was pretty much unplayable," Lowry told RTÉ Sport's Greg Allen this week. "The greens were running at 15 on the stimpmeter. Rory, in particular, I spoke to him about it and he couldn't believe how hard it was." The talk was similar nine years ago. Lowry recounted this week how he'd walked off after five holes of his first practice round in 2016 muttering how he was never going to be able to play this course. Then the rains came on Tuesday and Wednesday. The ground softened. And Lowry, after an impressive two-under par 68 on Thursday (like most US Open courses, the par here is 70), carded a 65 in his weather interrupted third round - the best round of his career until the 64 on Saturday in Portrush in 2019. He wasn't considered to be in the front rank of players on the PGA Tour at the time but there was nonetheless a sense he was building towards something big in the lead-up. The previous year, he'd nipped inside the top-10 at the notorious Chambers Bay and then had his biggest win at the WGC event in Firestone. With play running behind schedule due to dangerous weather on Thurday, Lowry had opened a two-stroke lead on Saturday night with still four holes left to play in his third round. Things got even better resumed early on Sunday morning - close to lunch-time in Ireland - birdieing the 15th and 17th to take a four stroke lead into the final round. Then, anxiety seemed to take hold. Lowry turned in 38, by which time his lead evaporated. He wound with a closing 76, the worst score of anyone on the leaderboard. Dustin Johnson, who'd choked in such excruciating fashion on the 72nd hole 12 months earlier, won with a swagger which belied his previous history on major Sundays. Lowry had to content himself with tied-second, then his best finish at a major. The failure at Oakmont appeared to nag at him a couple of years as he entered a slump, which he wouldn't fully shake off until his annus mirabilis in 2019. On the eve of his final round in Portrush, the questions about Oakmont inevitably surfaced. It was only there that the demons were put to bed. How is Lowry primed for such a test this time around? Statistically, pretty damn good. Two months ago, Lowry walked off the 18th green on Saturday at Augusta and snapped at reporters that he was sick of answering questions about Rory McIlroy. "I'm not going to stand here and talk about Rory for 10 minutes. I'm trying to win this tournament as well," Lowry told the press pack. 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RTÉ News
14 hours ago
- RTÉ News
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The Irish Sun
18 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
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