The Playoffs Owe Me One - Lowry Hopes Luck Will Turn As He Chases Top 70 Spot

Shane Lowry at the 2023 Wyndham Championship

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 3 August 2023

Shane Lowry feels the FedEx Cup Playoffs owe him one after several near misses, as he looks to play his way in during the Wyndham Championship.

The Irishman goes into this week in 76th and needing to get inside the top 70 to make the first FedEx Cup Playoff event at the St Jude Championship in Memphis next week.

And Lowry believes he can make a run at the Tour Championship this year if he can just get into the top 70 with a good performance at the Wyndham.

"I'm here because I want to make it into next week," said Lowry. "I want to make it into next week, I want to make it into the Playoffs and I want to make a run at the Playoffs.

"At this stage I'm sitting here and I still feel like I can make the Tour Championship, so that's an exciting place to be. I think obviously I would prefer if I was in a better spot coming in here, but I'm not.

"Memphis is a course that I like playing and I've played all right in the past, so if I can get there, I know I can make a run there. Yeah, I certainly don't want to be sitting home on my couch watching the Playoffs."

Lowry has made the Playoffs for the last four consecutive seasons but has also suffered some close calls in missing out on both the postseason and also the season-ending Tour Championship.

Shane Lowry and caddie Bo Martin together at the Dubai Desert Classic — Shane Lowry feels he can make a good Playoff run if he can just qualify

The former Open champion feels the Playoffs may just owe him one after some of those misses.

"I feel like I've been in situations like this quite a bit over the last number of years," he added. "Like I miss out on the Tour Championship by one spot last year, by two shots in 2019.

"I remember playing here one year, I'd been told I needed a top-10 to get to the Playoffs, I finished seventh and I missed out by one point.

"So I feel like the Playoffs nearly owes me one at this stage, so hopefully - that's what I'm trying to tell myself this year.

"Look, I feel like I've been playing some pretty good golf most of the year. I'm coming off the back of a pretty bad week at The Open, which I was very disappointed with, but I had a nice holiday with my family last week to kind of regroup and hopefully get going again this week."

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 - Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he's conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England's Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.

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