“I’m like the iron man of golf,” quipped Shane Lowry ahead of the Honda Classic, as the world number 20 – one of the headline acts in the field with many opting to skip a week in a crowded early-year schedule – prepares to seek amends at a tournament where a freak squall proved his undoing a year ago.
Certainly, he’ll not want any sense of deja vu at the PGA National located close to home in his United States base at Palm Beach Gardens. Remember? Quite literally a dark cloud materialised from nowhere as he stood on the 18th tee in last year’s final round and turned a reachable in two Par 5 into a monster of a finishing hole and he ultimately came up short, finishing runner-up to Sepp Straka.
This time around, Lowry returns to the venue in improved form after a missed cut at the Phoenix Open was followed up by a strong showing in last week’s Genesis Invitational at Riviera where he secured a top-15 finish.
The secret to that turnaround in form was the arrival of his coach Neil Manchip for some person-to-person work that yielded immediate results: “I was a little bit off with my alignment on my set-up and it led to bad shots, and the way Phoenix was playing, it was playing quite firm and fast, so if you were a little bit off, it kind of really showed up in your game.
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“I felt miles off, but as soon as I got hitting shots with my coach last Monday in LA, it started to feel a lot better, and it still felt a little bit uncomfortable as the week went on, but as the week went on further and further, I played better and better and got into the tournament better.
“It was just purely set-up and purely keeping an eye on things that way. I felt maybe I got a bit complacent in Phoenix, where my game has been pretty good for a long time, where my iron play has been pretty good for quite a while, and it was as bad as I’ve played for a while.
“It was a bit of a shock to the system, but it was nice to get it back and get a bit of confidence in LA last week, and hopefully I can take that into this week,” said Lowry, who is playing for the fifth week in six following on from a three-tournament stretch in the Middle East.
Indeed, the Honda is his third straight week in the US and will be followed by another straight two weeks, the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Bay Hill and The Players at Sawgrass; hence his “iron man” quip, jokingly adding: “I feel like Sungjae Im.” The Korean had earned a reputation of going week-to-week living in hotels before finally entering the property market.
For Lowry, this is a week when he will be able to sleep in his own bed and is partly the reason why he hasn’t taken a week-off from the hectic itinerary. For example, Rory McIlroy and Séamus Power have decided to take a break before returning to competitive golf at Arnie’s place next week.
“I’m playing a lot of golf. Obviously with the field here this week, this is the obvious week for people to skip, to take some time off to get ready for The Players and the Masters and whatever, but I feel like I live here, I like the course, I feel like I can win around a course like this. I want to play here. I like this tournament,” explained Lowry of his rationale for playing, one of just three players from the world’s top-20 in the field.
He added of the challenge presented by the course which includes the infamous Bear Trap on the closing stretch of holes: “Your approach is to try and keep your ball dry. Look, 15, 16, 17 is quite a difficult stretch ... I don’t really have a number in my head. You just try and hit the best shots you can and keep it away from the water and manage yourself around those holes.
“If the pin is tucked, you just stay away from it and try and make pars. They are literally par holes. If you make three pars around the Bear Trap, you are pretty happy standing on 18 tee. You kind of want to finish par, par, par, birdie. If you finish that around here, you’re pretty happy.
“It’s set up very well this year. It’s in great condition. The rough is a nice length where you can, it’s going to entice people to go for greens out of the rough, and there will be mistakes made around here, but it’s important just to make as few mistakes as possible and make as many birdies as possible when you get the chance.”
Purse: €7.9 million (€1.45m to the winner)
Where: Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
The course: PGA National has five golf courses in the resort with The Champion – 7,125 yards Par 70 – originally designed by Tom Fazio, playing host to the Honda Classic since 2007. Jack Nicklaus, aka The Golden Bear, was involved in the redesign of the course which is why the famed late stretch of holes (from the 15th to the 17th) is known as the Bear Trap.
The tough stretch starts with the 180 yards Par 3 15th which has water down the right and to the rear of the green; the 16th is a dog-leg right Par 4 with the approach played over a lake to the green; and the 172 yards Par 3 17th is again played mostly over water to the green. A few changes have been made to the bunkering systems, with a reduced number of sand traps on the 13th and 16th holes.
The field: This is the last year of Honda’s long-time sponsorship of the tournament and, being squeezed by the big-money elevated events on either side (The Genesis last week, the Arnold Palmer Invitational next week), there is a definite fall in the quality of players with just three from the world’s top 20 in the field (Sungjae Im, Billy Horschel and Shane Lowry).
A notable invitation is that of Piercesome Coody, the grandson of 1971 Masters champion Charles; the young Coody has made an impression in his short time as a professional, winning on the Korn Ferry in his rookie season last year. For good measure, his twin brother Parker came through Monday Qualifying to also earn a spot in the field.
Quote-Unquote: “I hit it very accurate off the tee, which is huge, because once you’re in the fairway, if you’re feeling good with your irons you can actually take advantage and attack some of the greens and some of the pins. But the key is you’ve just got to put it in the short grass, otherwise all the water comes way more into play, and it gets a lot more dicey” – defending champion Sepp Straka on the winning game plan around The Champion course.
Irish in the field: Shane Lowry is in a group including Webb Simpson and Ryan Palmer (off the 10th at 12.34pm Irish time); Pádraig Harrington is in a group with Zach Johnson and Luke Donald (off the first at 5.18pm Irish time).
Betting: Past champion Sungjae Im is the clear market leader at 8/1 with Shane Lowry priced at 14/1 ... Adam Svensson, though, looks like a tempting wager at odds of 28/1 as the Canadian (already a winner on the PGA Tour this season) returns to a venue where he was a runaway winner of the Korn Ferry Q-School in his fledgling days as a professional ... defending champion Sepp Straka is a 40/1 shot.
On TV: Live on Sky Sports Golf (from 1.30pm).
