'I Threw It Away' - Shane Lowry Candidly Reacts To Cognizant Classic Heartbreak

Ireland's Shane Lowry admitted he "had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away" following his late collapse at the Cognizant Classic In The Palm Beaches on Sunday.

Lowry was the 54-hole leader at PGA National's Champion Course and was bogey-free through 15 holes as he established a comfortable three-stroke lead heading into the layout's famous Bear Trap.

However, seemingly out of nowhere, the 38-year-old excessively faded his tee shot at the par-4 16th into the water down the right before going on to make a decent double-bogey, given the circumstances.

Stood on the 17th tee box, he then watched rival - and eventual winner - Nico Echavarria birdie the final par 3 to draw level in the group ahead.

Shockingly, Lowry proceeded to once again slice his tee shot into the water down the right and once again made a double-bogey to all but end his chances of a first solo PGA Tour title in seven years.

The man who produced the winning putt for Team Europe at last year's Ryder Cup has three PGA Tour titles to his name, with the first arriving at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational back in 2015.

Lowry also claimed The Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2019 and partnered Rory McIlroy to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans trophy in 2024.

But, with the latest chance to snap that streak arguably as close as it's ever been, Lowry was unable to cross the line.

Reacting to the final-round events immediately after signing for a closing two-under 69, Lowry was almost at a loss for words over what occurred.

He said: "I'm obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away. What more can I say? That's twice this year now so far. I'm getting good at it.

"Yeah, look, what can I say? I played unbelievable all day, and one bad shot on 16 completely threw me for the last three holes. It's never happened to me before.

"I said to Darren [Reynolds - caddie], how do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September in Bethpage and got through that fine?

"I just felt like it was weird out there; I just really -- yeah, just couldn't feel the club face the last three holes then after my tee shot on 16. It was strange.

"What can I say? It's very disappointing. Geez, this is going to be hard to take. Dubai was hard at the start of the year, but this is going to be pretty hard."

Lowry was referencing his late stumble at the DP World Tour's Dubai Invitational back in January, when a clumsy green-side bunker shot dropped into the water and ultimately saw the Irishman finish T3rd shortly after leading.

Following two extremely disappointing finishes to tournaments over the first two months of the year, the question many people are asking is 'how does Lowry put these moments behind him?'

A similar question was posed to the 2019 Open champion later in his post-Cognizant Classic press conference, to which Lowry replied: "I have a tee time next Thursday in Bay Hill, and I have no choice but to move on."

Followed by his wife Wendy and daughter Iris, Lowry admitted the most painful aspect of the defeat was not the loss of money or FedEx Cup points, but the fact he couldn't enjoy that sweet family moment on the 18th green for the first time since his daughter was born.

He continued: "The hardest thing about today is I've never won in front of my four-year-old, and she was there waiting for me.

"Yeah, I only wanted it for her today. I didn't want it for -- I don't care about anything else. I wanted it so bad.

"Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win.

"I didn't get ahead of myself, but I felt so comfortable out there, and then yeah, tried to get a lot out of my 3-iron on 16 and did the only thing I couldn't really do."