On his Instagram account last week, Shane Lowry posted a clip as he executed a series of 25-yard approaches towards a pin in sunny Florida.
At the sixth chip, he holed out. ‘Did you get that?’ he grinned. The 2019 Open champion has always possessed a silky touch around the greens.
The post included the caption ‘#31 Hard at it’. It was a reminder of how close Lowry was to the top 30 in the FedEx Cup standings who are chasing the $75m Tour Championship bonanza in Atlanta this weekend. Instead, he had time to chill out with his family in Jupiter Island, and get in some practice before returning to Europe for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth on September 8.
Arguably, Lowry should be among the East Lake likely lads. Usually, when a player pulls out of an event, the first alternate gets in. Only the injury to Will Zalatoris didn’t open a door to Lowry due to the specific rules for the grand finale of the PGA Tour.
Still, there is bonus money of up to €250,000 due to Lowry for coming 31st in the standings, which will top up a bonanza season.
He’s already earned more than $3.6m in 2021-22, not including a further $290,000 from three events he played on the DP World Tour not co-sanctioned with the PGA Tour.
While Lowry may not have won since Royal Portrush, he knocked loudly on the door at The Honda Classic (second), The Masters (third) and RBC Heritage (third). And even though he fell a putt short of the Tour Championship, 12th place last Sunday in Delaware was worth $315,000 no less.
It marked the end of a busy week for Lowry who was part of the ‘Gang of 22’ who met with Tiger Woods, golf’s alpha male, and Rory McIlroy to circle the wagons around the PGA Tour in the face of the LIV Tour invaders.
The names at the meeting in Wilmington’s Hotel Du Pont were impressive. Major winners Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Adam Scott and Lowry were there, along with Olympic champion Xander Schauffele and reigning FedEx Cup champion Patrick Cantlay.
Of the absentees from the world’s top 20, Open champion Cam Smith is set to be announced as the latest LIV Golf International Series recruit.
While Cameron Young and Joaquin Niemann, both at the summit, are also being linked to the LIV Golf ranks.
The drip of defectors has become a steady flow as many of the leading players, although certainly not all, have had their heads turned by petro-dollars and guaranteed contracts. Traditionalists may be appalled, but the Saudi Private Investment Fund (PIF) runs as deep. They’re not going away.
PGA Tour chief Jay Monahan, a tough-talking Bostonian of Irish ancestry, has heeded the concerns of the ‘Gang of 22’ by promising mega-rich Tour events for 2023, teeing off at $20million.
In turn, the top players have committed to playing 12 elevated PGA Tour events in addition to the four majors and The Players. There will also be a monster $100m dividend from the Player Impact Program to share among the 20 players regarded as fans’ favourites. Monahan’s message was clear: Stay and be rewarded. But if you leave the PGA Tour tent, you won’t be welcome back.
As a sidebar to the increased purses, Woods and McIlroy have launched an interactive virtual golf league for Monday nights with the latter insisting the players want to ‘make the product more compelling.’ Whether that gimmick works remains to be seen, but at least the PGA Tour, and its leading lights, are throwing punches.
The scrap has become nasty with Lee Westwood declaring he wants the PGA Tour remainers to ‘choke’ and be ‘held to account.’ There are legal writs flying about with Woods and McIlroy subpoenaed this week by Patrick Reed’s lawyer to explain what was said behind closed doors at Wilmington.
Caught in the crossfire of the Leviathans is the DP World Tour, which has been deeply wounded by the emergence of LIV.
Unlike the PGA Tour which has the financial muscle, and high-profile infantry led by Woods and McIlroy, the European-based Tour is armed with little more than a pea-shooter. This week, there is $2m at stake in the European Masters in Switzerland where Ryan Fox, the world No 48, is the highest ranking player.
The leading European golfers, such as McIlroy and Lowry, play a handful of ‘home’ events these days and with their renewed commitment to the PGA Tour, from next year, will feature even less.
The Horizon Irish Open is among those events looking increasingly vulnerable in spite of a €6m prize pool. McIlroy will be at The K Club in 2023, which is a plus, but more big names are needed, as well as a new date.
Across the DP World Tour, the fields are mostly weak and the purses invariably modest. It is not just the tournament schedule that is being affected.
There are only 13 months until the Ryder Cup but as yet there are no qualification criteria to make the European team in Rome.
As for Lowry, #31 is not the number that matters now. It’s #23. His world ranking, the highest since June 2020.
With a handful of decent DP World Tour purses events to come, $8m at Wentworth, the $5m Dunhill Links and the $10m DP World Tour Championship, the Offalyman may eclipse his highest ranking of 16.
He has every incentive to stay hard at it.