Shane Lowry has been enjoying a fine run of form in 2024, claiming six top 15s in his last six starts, with his performance on Saturday seemingly continuing that trend.
Playing the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, the first event of the DP World Tour's Playoffs, the former Open Championship winner carded back-to-back 66s on Friday and Saturday to move two back of Paul Waring, with Lowry revealing some major changes ahead of the tournament.
"My game, like, I've been driving the ball really good. My iron play has been great. You know, I probably haven't been holing as many putts as I would like," explained Lowry, who won this very event back in 2019.
"I feel like I'm putting all right, hitting good putts, not missing the shorter ones. And I feel like, yeah, a few putts drop, I can be dangerous. In saying that, I've 12 new clubs in the bag this week... I have a new driver and new set of irons. What's going on before me, I haven't really thought about. I've just been trying to get used to this, and it's going very well so far. Hopefully it keeps going that way".
So, what are the particular changes to Lowry's bag? Well, beginning with the driver, Lowry has substituted the Srixon ZX5 Mk II out for the Srixon ZXi, a model that appeared on the USGA conforming list in mid-October.
The TaylorMade M5 fairway wood has remained, with Lowry opting for a combo set of the new Srixon ZXi 5 & ZXi 7 irons, which we first saw at the 2024 Procore Championship.
Along with the irons, the final change appears to be in the wedges, as the 37-year-old looks to have changed the Cleveland RTX 6 ZipCore Tours to Cleveland RTZ prototype wedges, a model that was spotted at the Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas.
Going into the final round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Lowry tees off in the final group alongside Niklas Norgaard and leader, Waring, at 11.20am local time. The chasing pack includes the likes of Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjorn Olesen, who are both 15-under, whilst Tyrrell Hatton, Nicolai Hojgaard and Robert MacIntyre are 14-under, four shots back of the lead.
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