For the second year in a row, Shane Lowry played in the Masters only to fail on Sunday and see his good friend Rory McIlroy slides into the green jacket.
But unlike last year, when Lowry celebrated McIlroy’s victory in stylea “down and out” Lowry couldn’t handle the party after this year’s final round. He broke the news to the now two-time Masters champion via text message, as he revealed The Golf Channel on Thursday.
Why Shane Lowry didn’t celebrate with Rory McIlroy on Masters Sunday
Going into the final round of the 2026 Masters, Lowry was nine shots back and just two shots behind co-leaders McIlroy and Cameron Young.
But in a dismal repeat of last year’s Masters, Lowry struggled mightily on Sunday at Augusta National, shooting an 80 to fall to one under and a T30 finish.
It was a better shot than he had last year. Also in contention Sunday at the 2025 Masters, Lowry shot a final-round 81 to finish T42.
Although he was able to swallow his pride and celebrate McIlroy’s first Augusta victory, this year the wounds hurt, as he explained to Golf Channel on Thursday at the RBC Heritage.
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“Obviously, you know the stories from last year. I called at his house with a case of wine and all that,” Lowry began.
Lowry stood around the Augusta clubhouse to hug McIlroy after his victory. But feeling “despondent” after his second drop on Sunday, he later texted McIlroy to tell him not to wait for him at the celebrations.
“I texted him Sunday night and said, ‘Honestly, I’m so happy for you, but I don’t have it in my mind tonight to go out and party,'” Lowry said.
Instead, he stayed home to imagine once again what might have been.
“I was feeling a little down and a little down, so I just stayed home with my crew, but I’ll see him in a couple of weeks in Florida.”
“I felt like I played a lot of good golf last week and I didn’t take anything out of it,” Lowry continued. “It’s always hard to do that when you prepare so much for a tournament like this and perform as well as I did for a few days. But I try to take as many positives as I can.”
The Masters clash was not Lowry’s first this year. He held a three-shot lead late Sunday in the 2026 Cognizant Classic, then made doubles on 16 and 17 to hand the victory to Nico Echavarria.
“This game has punched me in the gut a lot this year,” Lowry said Thursday. “It’s testing me a little bit, but, you know, I’m not going to stop working hard. I’m not going to give up and I’m going to give it my best as long as I can play this game.”
Although he admitted that “Thursday came too quickly this week” after “a tough couple of days,” Lowry shot a one-under 70 in the opening round of the RBC Heritage.
“I feel like it was always going to be a pretty tough round to get my kind of mojo back and I felt like I played well today,” Lowry said.
So Lowry plows ahead hoping that if he keeps knocking on the door, he will eventually end his individual PGA Tour winless streak, which dates back to his emotional win at the 2019 Open Championship.
