After his disastrous final round at The Masters on Sunday, Shane Lowry said he didn’t have it in him to celebrate his good friend, Rory McIlroy, who won the tournament for the second consecutive year.
Lowry — whose final round 80 saw him drop from contention to a tie for a 30th — was asked by the Golf Channel if he had joined McIlroy’s victory lap following his opening round at the RBC Heritage on Thursday.
“I wasn’t. Obviously the stories from last year when I called over his house with a case of wine and all that,” Lowry said, referring to McIlroy’s 2025 Masters triumph.
“I texted him Sunday night, and I said, ‘Honestly, I’m so happy for you, but I don’t have it in me tonight to come over and celebrate with you.’
“I was feeling a bit down and dejected, so I just sat at home with my crew. I’ll see him in a couple of weeks down in Florida.”
Lowry and McIlroy have been close friends since they were juniors growing up in Ireland.
Lowry’s nightmare at this year’s Masters included three double bogeys and five bogeys, which saw him lose around $900,000 in prize money, according to Golf Monthly.
“It’s been a tough few days, and I felt like I played a lot of good golf last week and got nothing out of it,” Lowry said at the RBC Heritage, where he opened with a 1-under par 70.
“It’s always hard when you prepare so much for a tournament like that and perform as good as I did for a few days. I tried to take as many positives as I can.”
Lowry and McIlroy were all smiles while spending time together with their families during the Par 3 contest on Wednesday before the Masters.
Lowry opened the final round two shots off the lead held by McIlroy and Cam Young before his day started to unravel with a double bogey on the fifth.
McIlroy said Lowry, winner of the 2019 Open Championship, is a role model to him during the third season of “Full Swing,” the Netflix docuseries surrounding golf’s biggest names.
