Lowry moves to career high of 12th in world despite Valspar frustrations

Shane Lowry

Shane Lowry is closing in on his goal of cracking the world’s top ten after his frustrating tie for eighth in the Valspar Championship catapulted him to a career-high of 12th.

The Offaly man (37) finished 48th for strokes gained putting on Sunday and 57th overall after a string of solid putts shaved the hole over the weekend, and he closed with a one-under 70 to finish five shots behind Viktor Hovland on six-under.

The good news for Lowry is that he topped the field for strokes gained off the tee and was third from tee to green in his final event before the Masters.

The 2019 Open champion is fancied to go well at Augusta National if he has an average week with the putter, and that could be all he needs to break into the world’s top ten.

“You’ll have the naysayers saying there’s obviously a few guys that could be ahead of me that are not playing on this tour, but it is what it is,” he said on the eve of The Players Championship.

“And I’ve always based a level of achievement around world rankings. 

“Certainly, one of my goals at the start of the year was to get to my highest world ranking and to go up towards that top 10.”

Lowry tied for eighth with Seamus Power, who shot 66 to clinch his first top ten since last August to move up 15 spots to 110th in the world and 73rd in the FedExCup standings.

The West Waterford man (38) is not exempt for the Masters. However, he can still play his way in over the next two weeks as he joins Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Padraig Harrington in this week’s Texas Children's Houston Open before heading to San Antonio for the Valero Texas Open.

“It was slow coming out of the blocks with a little injury in the off-season, but it had some good little runs,” Power said on Sunday. 

“Florida Swing has always been tougher for me, so to get some decent points here is going to be nice and a step in the right direction heading to Houston next week.”

Whatever about the Masters, he’s put himself in a position to qualify for the next Signature Event, the $20m RBC Heritage at Harbor Town, the week after Augusta via the Aon Next 10 or Aon Swing 5 mini money lists.

“Right now, I'm going to play the next two, and from there, obviously, I don't know,” said Power, hoping his performance at Innisbrook could start a good run.

“Hopefully, I can play my way into Augusta, but right now, I would play the Dominican (Corales Puntacana Championship) the week after Augusta and then go from there.

“We'll see. Things can change fast in golf, so that's going to be the plan.”

Hovland outgunned Justin Thomas down the stretch on Sunday to win for the first time since he captured the Tour Championship and the FedEx Cup in 2023.

He came into the Valspar on the back of three missed cuts but rode a hot putter to claim his seventh PGA Tour win and Europe’s sixth from 13 events “so far this season.

It's been quite the struggle the past year and a half,” Hovland said after a final round 67 saw the former world number three jump from 19th to eighth in the world.

“So for me to come back and win this tournament is quite incredible because I was not very hopeful with my game leading into this week, and, yeah, it just goes to show this game is pretty crazy.”

Harrington, meanwhile, tied for 12th behind Miguel Angel Jimenez (61) in his defence of the Hoag Classic in California.

He closed with a four-under 67 to finish on nine-under, six shots behind the Spaniard, who also shot 67 to win by one from Stewart Cink and Freddie Jacobson at Newport Beach Country Club and capture his 15th career win.

Darren Clarke shot 69 to tie for 19th, eight shots behind Jimenez on seven under.