Shane Lowry 35th In World After Top 20 Finish At Sawgrass
Written 1 year ago by Will O'Callaghan
Shane Lowry is up one place to 35th in the world golf rankings following his 16th place finish at the Players Championship.
Graeme McDowell is also on the rise, he was ninth last night and is up to 68th from 76th.
Jason Day consolidated his place at the top with his wire to wire success at Sawgrass in the so-called fifth major.
The Australian has now won seven of his last seventeen events on the PGA Tour.
Day carded a closing 71 at Sawgrass to finish 15 under par and four shots ahead of American Kevin Chappell, with Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar, Colt Knost and Ken Duke a shot further back.
The 28-year-old began the final round with a four-shot lead, but struggled to reproduce the form which saw him equal the course record on Thursday and set a tournament best halfway total of 129.
Day’s lead was cut in half when he followed a bogey on the sixth with another on the ninth after amazingly fluffing three consecutive chips from the side of the green, but for the second day running he played the closing stretch in three under par to seal a hard-fought win.
“It’s such a big accomplishment for me in my career to be able to finally win as number one in the world,” Day told Sky Sports. “And to go wire to wire is very special.
“I’m glad I don’t have to play the course again. It was tough. It was easy to lose a little bit of focus on the front side, especially with a four-shot lead, and I just kept telling myself ‘Keep yourself in it and give yourself opportunities on the back side’.
“I played really solid golf on the back side and am very pleased to walk away the champion.”
The win saw Day join Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Adam Scott and Martin Kaymer as the only players to have won The Players’ Championship, a major title and a WGC event in their career.
And the US PGA champion also matched Woods (twice), Tom Watson and Johnny Miller in recording multiple wire-to-wire wins in a season following his victory in the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March.
Rory McIlroy was 12th and remains best of the Irish in third place in the world, Jordan Spieth is second.
Lowry will play his first European event of the season this week when he tees it up at the Irish Open at the K-Club.
It’s a busy month ahead for the Clara man, who will also play the BMW Championship at Wentworth before the US Open at Oakmount.
Image – Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images North America
