Shane Lowry says he’s playing for a man he says was “great craic” — and playing well.
Lowry revealed Saturday that his uncle, Jimmy Lowry, died Thursday morning, the day the younger Lowry started play at the Honda Classic. The news came to light after the Irishman’s third round, when a reporter asked him about the green-and-white ribbon that he had attached to the left side of his hat.
“Yeah, my dad’s brother, unexpected,” Lowry said. “It’s a very sad week for our family. To be honest, I wanted to go home on Thursday when I heard the news. A lot of people talked me out of it.
“I’m here now. I’m trying to play for him and play for his wife and his kids and my cousins and my uncles and my aunts and everyone at home because we’re a very close family and very proud of our name and very proud of where we come from. Green and white is just where he’s from — that’s Ferbane in Offaly, in Ireland — and said I’d wear it. Yeah, hopefully I can go out and make him proud tomorrow. Everyone keeps telling me how proud he was of me over the last number of years, and hopefully I can do him another day proud tomorrow.”
Through three rounds at the Honda, Lowry was tied for fourth, four shots behind leader Chris Kirk. On Thursday, he shot a two-under 70 and followed it up with another 68, and a third-round 65.
After the latter round, Lowry was asked to describe his uncle, who is the brother of his dad, Brendan.
“He’s two years older than my dad, so he’s 66,” Lowry said. “He’s just a great man. He loved working. He loved hard work. He loved hardship. He was big into Gaelic games at home. He didn’t necessarily play at the highest level, but he was very involved and loved in the community, and he was just a great man. He was great craic, and I loved him.
“It’s a very sad day for our family. Yeah, it’s just quite sad, and it’s quite hard. It’s been a difficult week. It’s been very difficult not to be there at home for my dad because my dad is a big softy and he’ll take this quite hard. But I’ll see him in a couple of weeks when he comes out here, and yeah.”
Notably, Lowry is in the middle of a stretch that will see him play eight tournaments in nine weeks. During last year’s final round at the Honda, Lowry was caught in a rainstorm on the par-5 finishing hole, parred it and finished a stroke behind winner Sepp Straka.
On Saturday, a reporter asked Lowry if he would take anything from that day to this year.
“I just hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow,” he joked.
“No, look, this golf course, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You just need to stick in as long as you can. There’s not many holes where you can stand up, and you don’t want to be complacent but take it easy on them. Every hole is a bit of a disaster hole, or a lot of holes are a bit of disaster holes. You just need to be very cautious and aggressive to your targets and just go out there and give it your best, and if that’s good enough at the end of the day, you hope to be standing here with the trophy.”
