“I felt like I hit the ball well enough to win the Masters”: Shane Lowry looks back at this year’s Major

Shane Lowry has competed eight times at Augusta National during his career. Some of his performances have been bad, some good, and some really good. For Lowry, 2023 may be in the latter category. "I felt like I hit the ball well enough to win the Masters," the Irishman described it.

The 2019 winner of The Open Championship recently gave an interview to Irish media outlet RTÉ, in which he reflected on the recently concluded season. Naturally, The Masters occupied a privileged place in Shane Lowry's schedule and also in the analysis of his results for the year.

Shane Lowry, The Masters, 2023 (Image via Getty).

In Shane Lowry's opinion, his performance at The Masters was marked by his difficulties with the putter, something that gave him problems during the entire season. He said:

"I always look back and I was completely dejected after the Masters this year because I felt like I hit the ball well enough to win the Masters, I just putted like... I don't even know what to say, but I putted really badly, it was probably the worst putting week I've ever had."

Lowry has finished in the Top 25 at the last four editions of The Masters, including a career-best T3 in 2022.

A look at Shane Lowry's performance at The Masters 2023

Shane Lowry got off to a good start in the 2023 edition of The Masters, with a first round of 68. This placed him temporarily in the Top 10, with Jon Rahm, the eventual champion, in the lead.

The Irishman followed that up with a 72 and two consecutive 73s to finish T16, the second-best result of his career at Augusta National Golf Club. His overall performance included 13 birdies, nine bogeys and one double bogey.

As Lowry himself admitted, the least favored area of his game during The Masters was putting. The Irishman was well below the tournament average (1.64), with 1.72 putts per hole.

Lowry's initial putting was decent but got worse over the weekend, as shown by the following data (via The Masters official website):

Rounds	Putts Per Hole (Shane Lowry)	Putts Per Hole (Event Average)
1	1.67	1.68
2	1.61	1.62
3	1.78	1.62
4	1.83	1.64

Lowry also averaged three 3-putts, well above the tournament average (0.91).

However, his performance in other areas of the game was much more in line with his true quality. The Irishman hit 50 of 56 fairways (89%), with an average driving distance of 293.12 yards and a longest drive of 312 yards, achieved in the fourth round.

Problems with the putter accompanied Lowry not only at The Masters but throughout the season. The Irishman averaged 29.18 putts per round, finishing 130th in that category on the PGA Tour.