It is so very tough to get to the PGA Tour.
Just as tough to stay there.
Shane Lowry is a perfect example.
Lowry is a recognizable bearded face on the European Tour.
On the PGA Tour last season, he was just another guy caught up in the struggle.
Lowry figured he’d give it a go on this side of the pond last season. Didn’t work out well at all. He played in just 17 regular events, missed the cut in a half-dozen of those, finished 140th on the FedEx list and earned less than $700,000. It earned him a ticket home.
Some guys are simply better fits for the European circuit.
Apparently Shane is one of them.
Lowry is the 54-hole leader at the huge Rolex Series event in Abu Dhabi. He’s got the 54-hole lead thanks primarily to that incredible first round 62 that tied Henrik Stenson’s course record at the beyond-plush Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
Conditions over there have been perfect and Lowry’s played the pants off some big names like Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson.
Johnson basically looks like he’s been sleep-walking with an uninspiring effort that saw him go 69-71-72 the first three days. Problem for D.J. has been finding fairways. “It’s not going where I’m looking,” he lamented earlier this week.
As for Koepka, he’s trying to get the hang of going after events that don’t start with a capital “M” — as in major.
“It’s been one of those weeks — I’ve hit a lot of good shots and I’ve had a lot of putts just burn the edges.” Brooksie also pointed out that you have to hit the fairways, thick lush rough and that’s not conducive for getting second shots close to the hole. “You can’t play form the rough out here,” he said.
Which brings us back to Lowry, who has played well despite not hitting the short grass all the time.
He’s made more putts than anyone else and that’s why he sits atop with leaderboard with 18 holes to play.
This would be his biggest victory in Europe. He only has two. He won the Irish Open in 2009 as an amateur and the 2012 Portugal Masters. The world got to know him a bit better when he won the 2015 WGC Bridgestone.
Which brings us back to Abu Dhabi and a chance for him to win on Saturday.
Maybe it was the extra prep work he got in over the past two weeks.
“Yeah, it was longer,” he said of that preparation. “I was here for 12 days in Dubai before I came up here and pretty much I was practing, training every day, and we had a house over — everything, we were eating well and everything was great. I was there with Paul Dunne and we had a really nice time, and we practiced together and had some matches. I didn’t actually beat him once, so I wasn’t coming up here too optimistic. But yeah, I felt really good coming up here, and after what I had done, I knew I had done everything right to get myself in a good frame of mind to play here.”
He’s hoping he can close the deal over the final 18. Should have a good chance. He’s got a three-shot lead over Richard Sterne thanks to a third-round 67 that got him to a pretty hefty 17-under par. For the record, that eight better than world’s No. 2 Koepka and 13 better than No. 3 D.J.
Pretty good for a guy who struggled on the PGA Tour last year.
“Yeah, it’s great,” Lowry said with a bit more work in front of him. “I mean, look, we’re playing a huge event here, first one of the year, and there’s not another Rolex event for a while, so it would be nice to get off to a good start and get some points on the board and then kick on from there.”