SHANE LOWRY ADMITTED he had feelings of regret after his final round at Augusta saw him tied for third in this year’s Masters.
The Offaly native finished on five-under par after carding a 69, especially impressive having suffered a triple-bogey on the fourth.
Lowry recovered with birdies on the sixth, eighth and ninth, and needed to rebound with further birdies on the 13th and 15th following a bogey on the 12th.
He closed out his round with a final birdie on the 18th to end joint-third along with Cameron Smith, while Rory McIlroy was in second and world number one Scottie Scheffler came out on top.
“Who knows? You just don’t know. I hope I come in here next year with the form I’ve had this year, and I might give it a good go again, but it won’t be from the lack of trying,” Lowry began.
“It is quite pleasing to do what I did and finish the way I did is very pleasing. Yeah, but it’s going to be one of those where it’s like so near and so far type thing.
“I don’t know how many chances you’re going to get to win the green jacket. It is a bit of a disappointing kind of feeling right now, but obviously, my finish was really good, and I played some great golf all week.
I think I have believed that I can do whatever in this game. I just have to allow myself to come to these tournaments and do it,” he added, before reflecting on the week.
“I’ve got so many positives to take from it, and, yeah, it’s kind of onwards and upwards from here.
“I played the first three holes lovely, and I just tried to be a bit clever on the fourth and try to hit a 3-iron up in the air. It was just a horrendous shot.
“The big thing I can take away from the last two days being in contention around here is how comfortable I felt on the golf course. I’m proud of myself to the way I handled myself and especially when things went against me today. To shoot five-under for the last sort of whatever it was, 13 holes was pretty good.”
Lowry also insisted he was never going to throw in the towel after his nightmare on the fourth.
“I’ve got fight. I’ve got determination, and I’m never going to stop trying. I’m out there giving it my best, and I just kept on telling myself that was only one swing.
“I made a great up-and-down on five and made a great birdie on six, and that kind of got me going again.
I felt like I was somewhat out of the tournament, but you just don’t know how it’s going to go. I thought maybe I could shoot six or seven-under from there, but Scottie has obviously went down and done his thing, and he is the best player in the world at the moment.
“He has come out to play. And when the No. 1 player in the world comes out to play his best, he is hard to beat.”
