Shane Lowry suffered one of the worst moments of his career at The Masters as he blew a fantastic chance to claim the green jacket.
Lowry started his final round just two shots behind joint leaders Rory McIlroy and Cameron Young, but endured a complete nightmare on Sunday at Augusta.
The Irishman posted an eight-over 80 to plummet the leaderboard and eventually finish in a tie for 30th.
It was an unthinkable position for Lowry to end his week after such a strong start, with his rounds of 70, 69 and 68 suggesting a second career major win was on the cards.
But it certainly wasn’t meant to be for the 2019 Open champion, who has also taken a major blow financially following his disastrous Masters Sunday.
Shane Lowry’s nightmare final round at The Masters was very costly
Heading into the final round in fourth place, Lowry was in line for prize money of $1.08million.
But instead he leaves Augusta with $146,250, which still represents a tall fee but is a huge difference from what he could have earned.
The totals serve to highlight the lucrative side of the sport, but more significantly how careers can be changed by having a good or bad day on the course.
Lowry would have loved the green jacket from McIlroy, who incidentally earned $4.5million after winning The Masters for the second time.
Shane Lowry shows his true character after Rory McIlroy wins The Masters
Lowry certainly won’t want to relive his final round of The Masters again, having just suffered one of the worst collapses of his career.
He was hugely positive following his fantastic efforts earlier in the week, having even made history at Augusta.
Lowry has multiple Masters holes-in-one, but that will provide him with very little comfort knowing what he could have achieved.
He managed just three birdies in round four, adding seven pars, five bogeys and three double bogeys.
But his true character was on show in the immediate aftermath, with Lowry hanging around Augusta afterwards to congratulate his good friend McIlroy.
The Irishman did finish his round shortly before the champion’s, but he could have been forgiven for either fading into the background or disappearing altogether.
He embraced the Northern Irishman in a real moment of class, with Tommy Fleetwood also sticking around for his friend despite enduring a similar nightmare to Lowry.
The Englishman posted a four-over 76 to finish on even par and in a tie for 33rd, one shot behind Lowry.
Also enduring a complete catastrophe on the big stage was Haotong Li, who joined Lowry with an 80 to finish on T38, while Marco Penge’s six-over 78 saw him fall to T49.
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