LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Shane Lowry immediately made eye contact with him. With one leg crossed over the other and his hand on his hip, Luke Donald stood directly in Lowry’s path to the player scoring tent, where the Irishman would head next to sign for his record-tying 62 at the PGA Championship.
Lowry’s post-round grin — which didn’t look like it could contain itself any longer — quickly transformed into a wide-mouthed beam at the sight of his Team Europe Ryder Cup captain. Donald gave Lowry a firm pat on the back, muttered a few words, and sent him on his way to make his 9-under, bogey-free day official.
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But there’s more to that brief exchange than the two Europeans celebrating the second 62 of the week at Valhalla Golf Club and the fifth in men’s professional golf history, or one of them now standing tied for fourth and two shots behind the co-leaders with a round to play. A little over two weeks ago, Donald met Lowry on the putting green of the Bear’s Club in Jupiter, Fla., and provided some much-needed guidance for his friend.
Despite winning the PGA Tour’s team-format event alongside Rory McIlroy in late April, Lowry has struggled to hole putts this season. Lowry carded a pair of top-5 finishes at the Cognizant Classic and Arnold Palmer Invitational in back-to-back weeks but hasn’t sniffed the top of a leaderboard otherwise in an individual event.
And on Saturday he shared that his long game this season has been near its best. A putter switch ahead of the Zurich Classic still didn’t bring about the results Lowry was searching for. Something had to change.
“I’ve sort of felt all season that if I could warm my putter up that I could be dangerous,” Lowry said.
Enter Donald.
That day in Jupiter, the Englishman taught Lowry the practice routine that worked for him when he was at the peak of his career as the world No. 1. Perhaps it could help Lowry find his pinnacle.
“I worked with him for an hour and a half,” Donald said while waiting for Lowry outside the scoring area. “Not on fundamentals of putting, but I focused on the kind of drills that I thought would give me some mental strength … speed drills, holing out drills — that’s how to create a little bit of pressure when you’re practicing.”
“Yeah, maybe it’s working, or maybe it’s just a good week, who knows? Great to see him playing well and putting well,” he continued.
Lowry gained nearly six shots on the field in putting on Saturday. He holed 160 feet of putts, including 32- and 37-footers. He leads the PGA Championship field on the greens. The first thing Lowry attributed it all to? The philosophy behind his new practice regimen.
“I’ve sort of changed up how I’ve been practicing the last two weeks,” Lowry said. “Getting away from the technical side of it and just trying to hole putts and doing a lot of drills.”
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It’s impossible to simulate the mental and physical sensations a player will experience when he has a putt to shoot a record-breaking 61 on moving day during a major championship. Some shake. Others’ minds go blank. Lowry said he simply thought to himself that he “really wanted to hole it.”
Lowry didn’t hole his final 11-footer when that opportunity presented itself on Saturday on the 18th green at Valhalla. He grimaced, realizing that his ball had skirted the left side of the cup and tapped in for his par. But it didn’t matter. Something had clicked.
Donald wouldn’t disclose the specific “top secret” drills he demonstrated for Lowry, but whatever routine they configured — it’s working. Lowry isn’t spending hours trying to perfect the path of his putter head or the angle of his face, he’s learning how to visualize putts and make them. He’s figuring out what mindset it takes to hole 160 feet of putts in one round, not what technicalities it requires.
“You can never recreate (pressure), but you can try and recreate it a little bit and feel pretty good about yourself when you go out there,” Donald said.
Lowry’s putting has come to the rescue of his tee-to-green play this week. Of the players within three shots of Collin Morikawa’s and Xander Schauffele’s co-lead at 15-under, Lowry has been the worst both off the tee and from the fairway. This week Lowry has only gained .19 shots off the tee and .43 shots while approaching the green, as opposed to gaining 3.47 on the greens.
On Friday afternoon he went to the driving range to sort things out with his coach. They found an alignment issue. Lowry was setting up too far to the left. The ball-striking was better on Saturday — it has to be if you’re going to shoot 29 on the front nine and 33 on the back — but his putter was still essential. It saved his round. He shot up 25 spots on the leaderboard.
“I played with a little bit of freedom,” Lowry said.
That was good craic…. Roll on tomorrow ☘️ pic.twitter.com/prJzKJ3cYG
— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) May 18, 2024
Lowry is seeing lines and stroking his putter with the confidence of a player who could go out tomorrow and win his second major championship.
The Irishman knows what it takes to hoist one of those four coveted trophies. Five years ago Lowry beat Tommy Fleetwood to win the Open Championship by six shots, shooting a final-round 72 in miserable conditions at Royal Portrush. He experienced a different kind of pressure that Sunday in Northern Ireland, needing to avoid disaster with a four-shot lead heading into the final round. He simply had to survive the blustering winds and evade any tournament-ending mistakes. He succeeded, and took the Claret Jug to his hometown of Clara, Ireland, proudly hoisting it in the air at a local pub.
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Lowry is in the mix to capture the PGA Championship title at Valhalla, but the circumstances couldn’t be more opposite. He’s two strokes back, tied with Viktor Hovland and Bryson DeChambeau at 13-under-par for the tournament and one shot behind Sahith Theegala, who stands solo in third place. Former major champions Justin Rose and Justin Thomas lurk behind. Lowry knows what’s at stake.
“I’ve been fortunate to do it before, and to win one is pretty good, but to win multiple, you’re kind of on a bit of a different level,” Lowry said.
To get to that level, Lowry will need to go low. As he demonstrated on Saturday, there are birdies out there at Valhalla — lots of them. The course is soft. The slopes on the greens aren’t overly severe or difficult to read. It’s going to be vital for Lowry to bring his off-course preparation inside the ropes.
There’s no way to know what he’ll feel like over the putter tomorrow with a second major on the line. But Lowry has been there once before, and all thanks to a friend, he’s figured out how to imitate it on the practice green.
(Top photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)