THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2021

Shane Lowry

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. 13-under on the par-5s this week so far.

SHANE LOWRY: Not me. I wasn't certainly that.

Q. Nice week. I know you had the run going the way you wanted it the first 10 holes and then a couple of missed 10-footers and out of position on 16?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, you're kind of going out today feeling like, yeah, if I shoot 65, 64, you can do something special. I went out and I played nicely the front nine, 3-under through nine, and birdied 10. You've got 11 and 12 coming, and even the easy pin on 13, you sort of started to think.

I gave myself so many chances. Even on the front nine I had 3-under through nine, gave myself a lot of chances. I felt like I played good golf. To be honest I'm pretty happy with the week in general because it's not been the best run of form for me over the last while, and yeah, hopefully this is a bit of a momentum swinger and shift of momentum in the right direction going forward over the next few weeks.

Q. I assume you'll play the Match Play. Is that the only thing you'll do?

SHANE LOWRY: I'm playing Honda. I have a busy week ahead of me. I'm actually going to Augusta this evening. I'm playing Augusta tomorrow and Tuesday, myself and Lee Westwood are going, actually. He's taking his son, and I'm taking my coach and we're going to play. A couple of members kindly invited us. We're going up there, I'm treating them as maybe a little practice rounds for the Masters, Masters not far away, then I go back to Palm Beach Tuesday evening, pro-am Wednesday and play the Honda.

I like the course at the Honda. It's a home game for me now. I live five minutes from the course. Yeah, so go and play there, and then Match Play, and then I'll have a much-needed week off before the Masters.

Q. The fact that you're finding some form right now, does this feel good? Do you like to play more going into the majors like this?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, the only thing that was different for me this week is I actually holed a few putts. I had my one bad putting day on Friday, but the last couple of days have been nice, and Thursday was nice.

You know, that's just kind of the difference with me over the last sort of few months and this week. If I can just keep that up -- I'm just going to keep rolling with that, keep trying my best, and you never know. If I can putt like that over the next sort of few months or even few weeks, you can always do something special up in Texas or over at Augusta, so we'll see how it goes.

Q. Do you think you found something with this new putting stroke?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, definitely felt -- I felt the heat a little bit coming down the stretch. I felt sort of -- I always remember watching this tournament. You watch this tournament every year, and somebody plays the last four holes in 4-under or something, and I said to Beau walking down 15, why can't that be me, so let's just go for it. I hit two great shots into 15 and missed the putt and then chopped my way down 16, but I got a bit unfortunate with my tee shot.

But yeah, look, it's a lot of positives to take from the week. Obviously the result is one thing, but my putting is another thing, and then I didn't even have my "A" game I felt. I didn't even play my best this week. I felt like I ground it out well out there.

Q. You're going with Lee up to Augusta. Off the top 25 there in November. Do you feel better going into Augusta this year than maybe you've ever felt?

SHANE LOWRY: It's a long way to go. I feel better going into tomorrow playing in for a few quid than I would do at this time last week. Yeah, I don't know. That's just hard to tell. There's a lot of time between now and Augusta. My focus obviously -- look, it's somewhat of a practice run at it the next couple of days, but it's also a nice little boys' trip for myself and my coach. He's never played there so it's a treat for him, and we're just going to go up there and enjoy ourselves and back down and get back to business on Wednesday.

Q. How long have you known Westwood?

SHANE LOWRY: Do you know I haven't -- I've known him a long time, but I haven't really spent a whole lot of time with him. Over the last while I have. He was over at my house a couple of weeks ago for dinner. His girlfriend Helen and my wife Wendy get on very well. He's just a great lad, and you can just see how happy he is playing good golf.

He's kind of a -- for us younger lads -- well, I feel old, but for us younger lads or lads that haven't been on the Tour as long as him, you can kind of see what a good mood does here, what a good mood and being in good form, what that does to change your kind of mindset and change your game and help you play well and help you not take it too hard when the times are bad.

You can take a lot from his attitude and what he's done over the last few weeks.

Q. Do you hope at 47 you can play like Lee? Can you imagine --

SHANE LOWRY: God knows where I'll be at 47. I hope I'm still out here, honestly. My coach keeps telling me I'll probably play forever. I'll probably play as long as I can. But I don't know, we'll see. We'll see how it goes, but hopefully I'm still out here.