Lowry hangs on to automatic Ryder Cup spot but pressure mounting for Wentworth
Shane Lowry
SHANE LOWRY vowed to grab his Ryder Cup place “by the scruff of the neck” in next week’s final-counting BMW PGA after closing his PGA Tour season with a brilliant 65 in the BMW Championship in Baltimore.
Clinging to the final place in Pádraig Harrington’s side, the Offaly man (34) was “chuffed” with his score but knows he’ll be under severe pressure to qualify automatically at Wentworth.
Bernd Wiesberger had a chance to oust him from the automatic spots with victory in the Omega European Masters at Crans-sur-Sierre.
But needing a par at the 18th for his ninth European Tour win, the Austrian duffed his 111-yard approach from a fairway bunker into a pond and made a double-bogey six to hand Dane Rasmus Hojgaard (20), who set the target at 13-under with a 63, his third European Tour win.
The Austrian still shot 65 to finish second with another Ryder Cup contender, Henrik Stenson, a shot further back in third after a 63 as Jonathan Caldwell shared 53rd on level par after a 68.
The pressure is clearly building on all Ryder Cup contenders, but Lowry, whose bogey-free, seven-under 65 came too late to extend his PGA Tour season, jetted home feeling upbeat about his chances of being on the plane to Whistling Straits.
“It’s a place I love going, and hopefully, I can have a good week and cement my place on the team,” said Lowry, who tied for 26th on 13-under as Patrick Cantlay beat Bryson DeChambeau with a birdie at the sixth hole of a sudden-death playoff to go to the top of the FedEx Cup standings. “I am in the team now, but Wentworth is going to be a big week, and I am looking forward to going there and competing.”
DeChambeau was a shot clear playing the 476-yard 18th, but Cantlay rolled in a 22 footer for a 66 on the toughest hole on the course and the “Mad Scientist” failed with his 13 footer for victory and also shot 66 to them deadlocked on 27-under.
Cantlay got up and down for par at the first extra hole where DeChambeau missed from 18 feet for the win. He then made a seven footer to stay alive on their second trip down the 18th, he looked on as DeChambeau missed a six footer for the win.
Both men parred the par-three 17th and return to the 18th where DeChambeau drove into the water but got up and down from 150 yards for par, knocking his third to four feet.
Cantlay missed a 22 footer there but was clutch on the fifth extra hole, 186-yard 17th, where DeChambeau hit his tee shot to six feet and he replied by firing his to two and a half feet for a tap in birdie.
They returned to the 18th and after Cantlay rolled in an 18 footer for birdie, DeChambeau missed from nine feet to keep the playoff alive.
Sungjae Im was third on 23-under after a 67 with Rory McIlroy fourth.
The Holywood star is pleased he’ll have a chance of a third FedEx Cup win after he shot 67 to finish on 22-under and move up to 16th in the FedEx Cup race while Sergio Garcia must surely have secured a wildcardf from Harrington after his 69 for tied sixth saw him qualify for the Tour Championship in 28th — one of just four Europeans to make it alongside Jon Rahm (4th in the standings), Viktor Hovland (13th), McIlroy (16th).
“I am sure he’s watching,” Garcia chuckled when asked about Harrington’s wildcards. “Anything can happen. The good thing is this has put me in a pretty good spot to maybe, if I do something amazing next week, to make it myself. (automatically)”
Lowry will be under pressure to hold on to his spot on the team with Wiesberger, Robert MacIntyre, Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter, Victor Perez, Justin Rose and Alex Noren just some of his rivals next week.
“I’d prefer if I wasn’t under pressure,” Lowry said. “I’d prefer if I was fully cemented in the team and going to Wentworth just to play my game. But it is what it is.
“Three years ago, when I wasn’t anywhere near the team for the France Ryder Cup, I’d have given a lot to be in the position I am in now. I need to grab it by the scruff of the neck and go ahead and make the team.”
Meanwhile, Belfast’s Michael Hoey was denied his first win for eight years when he was beaten in a four-man playoff for the B-NL Challenge Trophy at The Dutch in the Netherlands.
The five-time European Tour winner (42) closed with a three-under 68 to tie with Spain’s Alfredo Garcia-Heredia, Iceland’s Haraldur Magnus and Denmark’s Marcus Helligkilde on 11-under but was eliminated when he failed to birdie the first extra hole.
Magnus bowed out on the third extra hole before Garcia-Heredia (39) birdied the par-three 10th to see off Helligkilde at the seventh tie hole to claim his maiden Challenge Tour win.
Robin Dawson tied for 24th on three-under after a 71 while Hoey moved up 32 places to 26th in the Road To Mallorca with the top 20 earning European Tour cards.
