Natural born swinger; Lowry looks to loosen up at Augusta

Shane Lowry insists he needs to loosen up and stop trying to be Mr Perfect in his bid for Masters glory.

Missing the cut in Houston last week meant the Clara ace got to play 27 holes at Augusta in peace and quiet over the weekend, spending his 29th birthday at the course on Saturday.

The silence amongst the pines helped him realise that he’s at his best when he’s not overthinking and simply playing the natural, imaginative game he’s played since he was 12.

Looking for a big week to kick start a season he admits “hasn’t been great” so far, Lowry looked out over the world’s most famous course and said:  “I need to just go and do my own thing. 

“I’ve played great the last two days and I think I need start playing golf like that; with a bit more freedom. 

“When I am playing practice rounds, my caddie Dermo calls the number and I just hit it straight away. 

“When it comes to the tournament, I just get a bit more tentative. I need to loosen up and free up a little bit and play a bit that way.”

Lowry’s putter has been ice cold this year but he’s hoping that his return to an old model and addition of a new Srixon driver to his arsenal of weapons (he'd been playing a trusty Taylormade model for six years until breaking it recently) will pay dividends on a course where his driving let him down last year.

With so much pressure to be perfect on the world’s most perfect course, Lowry knows that it’s simply impossible to demand that kind of precision and vowed to play his natural game instead and hope that his focus and intensity will fill the gap between what suits him and what's required.

He said: “When I am at home and playing on my own, I have my pencil bag  and I throw it down and barely get a yardage and I normally play good. 

“I just need to get somewhere in between trying too hard to get it perfect and not trying hard enough.

“When I get an easy shot, I almost get complacent sometimes. But when every shot is difficult, I almost switch on a little bit more.

“If you look back to the US Open at Chambers Bay last year where I finished in the top 10, every shot needed 100 percent attention and you needed to hit to a target as opposed to a flag.

“So I think that’s what this golf course is a little bit about and I will try to do something similar to what I did there last year. 

“You are hitting it to a spot as opposed to hitting it to a flag. At the first hole, there is a square in the middle of the green that you want to hit it into for every flag. That’s the way it is.”

While missing the cut in the Shell Houston Open was not good for his bank balance, he believes it could be a blessing in disguise as it gave him the chance to play Augusta on Saturday and Sunday.

He said: “It was my birthday on Saturday and we came down to play here. We basically had the course to ourselves. It might pay off in the long run.

“One of the main reasons I was a bit annoyed with missing the cut last year was that it cost me two rounds on the course as much as anything else. 

“So the more you play this golf course, the more you get to know it and the more comfortable you become. The last two days I have definitely felt more comfortable.”

Breaking the driver he’s used since 2010 just three weeks ago was a blow but Lowry’s worked hard with Srixon to find a new one and reckons he’s pulled it off even if it cost him the cut in Houston.

He joked: “I spent three days hitting drivers last week — l felt like [Padraig] Harrington— and I think it just messed up my rhythm a little bit. But the driver I got is really good.

“Me and the driver have had a few days and a few shots to get to know each other and I drove it really well the last few days, long and straight and I can turn it over right to left when I want. It's pretty good.”

All he needs now is for his putter to warm up and he’s praying a trusty old friend will pay dividends and kick start his season.

He said: “The season is not going great to be honest. But I just have to be patient and keep going. 

"Last year was a bit slow and it ended up being a great year. There’s a long way to go yet.”