SHANE LOWRY SUFFERED a brutal collapse at the Cognizant Championship on the PGA Tour on Sunday, blowing a three-shot lead with only three holes remaining to finish second and two shots short of Colombian Nico Echavarria.  

Having not made a bogey since Friday, Lowry made horrifying double-bogeys on holes 16 and 17 to throw away the tournament and suffer arguably the most stinging defeat of his PGA Tour career. 

Lowry went right and into the water on both holes to throw away a glorious chance of sealing a first solo win on American soil in more than a decade. 

“Shane was making a bunch of birdies, so it was probably play for second place almost”, said Echavarria. “But I tried to hit every green and tried to have a look, so I was well aware after he hit the water on 16 and 17.” 

Lowry’s stellar Saturday 63 left him in a share of the lead with Austin Smotherman at the start of play, and he relied on his putter to bail him out of a nervy start, saving par from 10 feet on the first hole. Having failed to pick up a shot on the par-five third, Lowry drained a monster, 45 foot putt for birdie on the par-three fifth, putting him back in a tie for the lead with Smotherman and Colombian Nico Echavarria. 

Smotherman quickly slipped off the pace to leave Echavarria as the main challenger. 

On the sixth, playing as the toughest hole on the course, Lowry hooked his tee shot well left, finding his ball with only five seconds of the three-minute time limit remaining. From there, however, he saved par with a stunning approach to the green, pumping his first and tying Echavarria in the lead at 14-under. A couple of pars saw him briefly slip a shot behind the Colombian, but a chip-in birdie from the green’s fringe on nine and then an eagle on the par-five 10th sent Lowry a shot clear. 

Lowry at this stage looked utterly in command of the tournament. Echavarria went so far left on 12 that he ended up on another fairway, where a few minutes later Lowry stuck a beautiful approach to the flag to extend his lead to two shots. It was to get even better, with Lowry making birdie on 13 to stretch his lead to three shots. A birdie putt on 14 drifted just past the hole, but a steady par and another on the perilous 15th – the first hole of the closing stretch known as The Bear Trap – meant Lowry stood on the 16th tee with a three-shot lead. 

From there came the incomprehensible collapse. Lowry took a driving iron off the tee and yet slapped the ball right and into the water, taking a drop fully 305 yards from the hole. Having left his next shot in the fairway, he pulled his approach left and into a malign, shortside bunker. Lowry’s genius from the sand left him three feet from the hole, allowing him get down for a double-bogey. 

Lowry’s lead was now just one shot and he then stood on the tee at the par-three 17th to see Echavarria yell “VAMOS” and pump his fist: he made birdie and now he was tied for the lead. But things were to get much worse, as Lowry clanged his tee shot right again and into the water again. Taking a drop, Lowry made another double bogey to suddenly trail Echavarria by two shots: a five-shot swing across only two holes. 

Echavarria held his nerve to make par on the final hole, meaning Lowry needed an eagle on the closing hole to send the tournament to a play-off. He found the sand with his approach, and sent his chip scuttling painfully past the hole. He then missed the returning birdie putt to finish in a tie for second place. 

While Lowry won the Zurich Classic team event with Rory McIlroy in 2024, his last PGA Tour win is technically the 2019 Open Championship at Portrush, meaning his last solo win on US soil is the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. Given Lowry has recently shown the awesome steel necessary to hole a putt to secure the Ryder Cup, his ongoing struggles to convert on the PGA Tour are baffling. Though they pain of this finish is all too easy to understand.