THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 12, 2023

Shane Lowry

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Quick synopsis of the week?

SHANE LOWRY: The last three days are as good of golf as I can play, and I need to find something on the greens over the next couple of weeks. I hit the ball great.

Obviously Thursday was a bit -- I felt good coming into the week, was excited about it, and then Thursday was just kind of a little kick in the backside really. Can never get complacent in this game. I'm not saying I was complacent, but you just need to be on the ball. It is that type of course.

I felt like then Friday, I played lovely golf. I mean, I shot 2-under, and it's by far the worst score I could have shot today. That's disappointing because I felt like I could have shot -- the way I played, had a 5 or 6- or 7-under in me today, and that would have moved me nicely up the leaderboard, but I have to look at the positives, as well, and the way I drove the ball and hit the ball over the last three rounds is pretty nice.

Q. When you talk about Thursday, could you get overexcited about playing a tournament sometimes?

SHANE LOWRY: You know, it's probably the biggest event we've had in a while, and it's very major-like coming in here. You kind of come in here, there's a buzz about the place. You probably have a bit more of a want to do well and probably tried a bit too hard on Thursday. Wanted to get off to a good start and get into the tournament and try and give myself a chance to win this tournament because it is such a big event in our sport.

Get on with it, so back to the drawing board.

Q. Once again, you'll be heading to Augusta feeling good about yourself and your game.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I will. I'm disappointed how I putted. I've been working so hard on it, and it's just not coming in. I need to just keep my chin up and keep going, keep working, keep grinding away, and hopefully it'll come in about a month's time.

Q. You guys always talk about spending this time now to prepare for the Masters. How do you do that? How do you go about preparing for Augusta? Are there things you work on, or is it putting --

SHANE LOWRY: Like I'll go to the Match Play next week, obviously I want to do well in that tournament because it's a big event, but I want to just feel comfortable in my game. I might play well and get beat out there; that's the type of event it is. So I want to go there and play well, come out with some confidence going into my week before Augusta, and kind of be at home the week before to just sharpen my game. It's more just putting the hours and the time in as opposed to trying to work on anything specific.

For me, where we are in Florida, The Bear's Club, they'll have the greens rolling 14 plus they'll have the place in pristine condition. I'm going up there this evening, I'm playing there the next two days. I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully then when it comes to it on the Thursday of the tournament, I'll be ready to go.

Q. Your putting, is there something you're trying differently or --

SHANE LOWRY: Well, I did. I went back to a shorter putter last week. It didn't work very well. But no, I started working -- I changed my grip and started working pretty hard with a guy Steven Sweeney about two years ago, and it's been working. It's been going pretty good. But it's just been a bit of a barren spell the last few weeks. I feel like if I had have holed anything this week, it would have been a decent week. It's one of those, there's no drastic changes needed, just a bit of confidence. There's a lot of it between the ears, as well, and I just need to get that right. Maybe commit to it a little more. I don't know.

Q. A lot of it's feeling confident, isn't it?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I remember going into Augusta last year I felt really good the week beforehand, practice was going well and it was after having some good results. Hopefully I can go to the Match Play and have a good result and feel good about my game.

Q. Sticking with the shorter putter?

SHANE LOWRY: I don't know.

Q. The caddie change, what precipitated that, and how hard is it to go out and grab somebody that you feel fits your game?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, kind of -- like at the time it kind of came out of nowhere. We started in the Middle East, and I had a bad couple of weeks, and we just kind of, we had a chat and things weren't going -- when I sit down and look at it things that weren't going as well as I probably thought. It got to me a little bit, and I just needed some fresh -- I knew, when it happened, I had no one in mind, no one lined up, so I didn't know what to do.

I've known Darren for years. He had just started with Alex Levy on the European Tour. That's almost why I didn't want to ask him, because I knew he just got a new job and I didn't want to take him away and then it not work out for us. But, frankly, he was one of the few options I had, and we just had a chat. He caddied for me during COVID for a few weeks when Bo couldn't, and yeah, it's been going pretty good.

Q. How long was Bo on your bag?

SHANE LOWRY: Four and a half years. It's a long time. Even I read some stuff after (indiscernible) I've had two caddies my whole career, and I've been on TOUR 14 years. I'm not exactly a caddie firer or anything. This is my third caddie. And it did take me -- that week in Phoenix was a bit weird for me, and I felt a bit different. But thankfully we went to LA and we had a decent result, and then we went and contended at the Honda. Bay Hill didn't go to play, but Bay Hill is not a place I typically go, and then but for the first round here, we've had a decent week this week, so it's gone well so far.

Q. Is he familiar with Augusta? Has he caddied there?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, but a long time ago. He caddied for McGinley there, so a long time ago.

Q. The fact that you're standing here on Sunday afternoon after you've walked off with a 77 on Thursday, that has to be -- in some way you have to feel like this was a successful journey.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, like I'm going to finish 40th, but yeah, look, it is one of those where you shoot the score you do on Thursday, and I'm one, like I never give up, so I'm always going to be out there trying my hardest. I went out there on Friday and it looked at times like I was going to miss the cut, and I managed to finish strong, and thankfully got a bit of help yesterday morning and a couple of lads let us in, and we went to play yesterday. To be honest, I played great yesterday I played great today, so probably should have finished better. But yeah, it's always nice when you have a bad day Thursday to fight back, and I've done that a few times in bigger tournaments over the years. So yeah, it just goes to show you have to -- look at Tom Hoge. He went out yesterday and he had a flight booked home yesterday afternoon and he went out and now he's out there with a chance to win the tournament. It's a game -- golf is a game you're just never out of it.