So near, yet so far as Lowry suffers another agonising late loss

SHANE Lowry had to endure another agonising late loss as he chased his seventh professional win in Florida on Sunday evening.

Three up with just three holes left to play, Lowry's worse nightmare unfolded as double bogeys on 16 and 17 saw Colombian Nico Echavarria snatch victory from his grasp in the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.

He was trying to get his first tour win since taking the 2022 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth – him and Rory McIlroy did pair together to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 2024.

It was an acute case of deja-vu for Lowry who also saw victory slip agonisingly slip from his grasp in the Dubai Invitational some weeks ago. He had a great win almost in his grasp when he had a double bogey on 18 and two more of those late on condemned him here.

He put himself into place in the first three rounds, recording a -1 70 in Thursday's opening one. The Clara man moved further up the leaderboard with a -4 67 on Friday and went into the lead with a great round on Saturday.

He was at his brilliant best with a -8 63 and this left him in a great position going into Sunday's final round.

SEE NEXT: Brave display and routine defeat sends Offaly back down

Lowry slipped behind early on but a birdie two on the 5^th got him going and he pushed for home. At one stage, he was among three players tied on the lead but him and Colombian Nico Echavarria separated from the pack in the back nine.

Lowry had a second birdie on the 9^th and grabbed the lead on his own with a fantastic eagle three on ten. Back to back birdies on 12 and 13 saw him go three clear and he had one hand on the win. Then disaster struck with a double bogey six on the 16^th, reducing the gap to just one shot.

Echavarria birdied the 17^th to go joint top on -17 - Lowry then had a second successive double bogey on the par three 17^th, bringing him back to -2 for the day. It was hard to watch for his many fans and it left him needing an extraordinary turnaround on the par five 18^th. Instead both players had pars as Echavarria got the win by two shots – to compound Lowry's misery, he had to settle for joint second with Taylor Moore and Austin Smotherman.
Lowry has been so close to a win on several occasions in recent years and is clearly close to his very best. Those type of losses are hard ones for him to take but he will keep going and the wheel will surely turn at some stage for him.