SHANE LOWRY has admitted he only wanted to win the Cognizant Classic for his daughter after she watched him agonisingly blow a three-shot lead in the last stages.
The Irishman was hoping to seal victory at Palm Beach Gardens on the PGA Tour event in front of Ivy, four.
But despite having a huge advantage, he recorded back-to-back double bogeys after hitting tee shots into the water on the 16th and 17th holes.
Lowry was devastated by his shocking collapse, especially with Ivy watching on, as she was hoping to see him win for the first time.
She said: “I’m obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands and I threw it away. What more can I say?
“The hardest thing about today is that I’ve never won in front of my four-year-old.
“She was there waiting for me and I only wanted it for her today. I didn’t care about anything else.
“I wanted so bad to see her little ginger head running out on the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world.
“I thought I had it, I thought I was going to win. I didn’t get ahead of myself but I was so comfortable out there.
“And then… I did the only thing I couldn’t really do.”
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Lowry suffered more pain at this tournament after coming close to victory in 2022 and 2024.
Nico Echavarria ended up sealing victory as Lowry came joint-second on 15 under.
He admitted his errors were “strange” after seeing his fortunes completely reversed in the latter stages.
Lowry added: “I played unbelievable all day and then one bad shot on 16 and it completely threw me for the last three holes. It’s never happened to me before.
“I said to Darren (Reynolds, his caddie) “how do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September at Bethpage (at the Ryder Cup) and I got through it fine?”‘
“It was weird out there, I just couldn’t feel the club face on the last three holes after my tee shot on 16, it was strange.”
Lowry has another daughter in addition to Ivy after also having Iris with wife Wendy.
His last major win in golf came in 2019, when he won The Open Championship.
He has previously come second in the US Open in 2016 and third in the Masters in 2022.
