Season of promise leaves Shane Lowry empty-handed in the end

A season that once promised so much for Shane Lowry has ended in disappointment after the Irishman saw his season come to a close in agonizing fashion.

In some cruel way, how Sunday’s final round of the BMW Championship ended for Shane Lowry was the perfect ending to a season that featured so many ‘so nearly’ moments. If Lowry’s year were to have been labeled it would have read something like “close but no cigar”.

The 2019 Open Champion had some nice results early in his season on both the DP World and PGA Tours, but if he were to pinpoint an exact moment that played a vital role in setting the tone for his year, he would have undoubtedly said the Honda Classic.

The final round of this year’s Honda Classic, to be specific. That was when Lowry had taken control of the tournament heading down the stretch and was on course for his first win since the 2019 Open Championship.

A bogey-free final round had seen the Irishman take control of things before a charging Sepp Straka and an opening of the heavens on the final hole denied Lowry on that occasion.

“Yeah, the last hole was — that was as bad a break as I’ve ever got,” Lowry had said following his heartbreaking loss back in February.

That cruel twist of fate would arguably set the tone for the rest of his season.

‘Close but no cigar’ for Shane Lowry.

That Sunday at the Honda Classic looked to have been put in the rearview mirror as Lowry continued to threaten near the top of leaderboards on multiple occasions, and it seemed as if it were only a matter of time before Shane Lowry won this season.

He would eventually follow up his close call at the Honda Classic with consecutive third-place finishes in April at both the Masters and RBC Heritage. More top 10 finishes would follow and the win continued to elude him.

That win cruelly never came for Shane Lowry but the promise of a first-ever Tour Championship appearance for the Irishman looked inevitable for a brief period of time on Sunday at the BMW Championship.

A final round 68 looked to have been enough for the five-time career winner to advance in this year’s FedEx Cup playoffs. But just when it seemed like Shane would finally reap some of the rewards of an excellent season, another cruel twist was already in motion.

Adam Scott, who would eventually secure the final spot in the season finale Tour Championship, had to conjure up a moment of brilliance from a greenside bunker to save an unlikely par on his final hole of the day.

The incredible save from the Australian bumped Lowry out of the playoff picture in the most agonizing fashion.

“I feel like there’s a lot of things that didn’t go my way this season,” Lowry acknowledged on Sunday.

Shane will, unfortunately, be feeling the effects of this season that left him empty-handed for quite some time, but he can take solace in the fact that some of these unlucky breaks might just break the other way next time around.