OAKMONT, Pa. — The USGA should thank Shane Lowry for playing so poorly Sunday, ensuring the one-stroke penalty it assessed against Dustin Johnson for the fiasco on the fifth hole didn’t really matter.
Lowry blew the four-stroke lead he had entering the final round by shooting a 6-over 76 to share second place at the U.S. Open with Jim Furyk and Scott Piercy. Lowry suffered seven bogeys in the final round, including three straight on the 14th, 15th and 16th holes, giving Johnson plenty of room to cruise to his first major championship.
“It’s not easy to get yourself in a position I got myself in today,” said Lowry, who was trying to become the first U.S. Open champion from the Republic of Ireland. “It was there for the taking and I didn’t take it.”
Lowry had a share of the lead at 4-under when he made birdie at the par-4 12th. But then he three-putted the 14th, missed a 5-footer for par at the 15th and 3-putted the 16th.
“I kept hitting it to 25, 30, 35 feet,” he said. “On these greens, it’s tricky. I kept leaving myself a lot of work to do. It caught up with me on 14, obviously on 15 and 16 as well. To do that, at that time in this tournament, the more I think about it, the more upset I get. That’s the way golf is.”
Lowry said he knew of the potential one-stroke penalty looming over Johnson, but insisted it didn’t affect his own performance.
“We were told walking on 12,” he said. “No, it didn’t affect the way I played. If anything, I credit Dustin for playing the way he played on the way in, having that hanging over him because I probably would have wanted to know straightaway if it was me.”
Lowry had four holes to play Sunday morning to complete his third round. He made a pair of birdies, putting him at 7-under. But he played the front in 3-over and saw his game unravel beginning at the 14th where his second shot landed well short of the hole and his putt for par was a woeful miss.
“It just kind of spiraled out of control for there,” he said.
“I tried my best to win this thing. It’s difficult to describe the way I felt. Everything happened quickly. But, you know, that’s what happens when you play a few bad holes. They’re kind of over before you know it. You’d like to have them back again.”