Shane Lowry just had one of the biggest meltdowns in PGA Tour history.
The Irishman looked certain to claim his fourth-ever victory on the PGA Tour at the Cognizant Classic, leading the field at PGA National by three strokes with three holes to play. Then golf happened.
Lowry found the water on the right side of the 16th fairway, double-bogeying that hole. He then found the water again on the 17th to make another double bogey. The “Bear Trap” section designed by Jack Nicklaus had bitten him, and not for the first time.
He’s had his fair share of meltdowns, and this isn’t even the first time he’s blown a late lead this season. He did the same in Dubai on the DP World Tour in January. But this was shocking, even for his standards, and came out of absolutely nowhere.
Eight-time PGA Tour winner Brad Faxon, who was on commentary at the time, recently revealed what he noticed about Lowry’s meltdown after watching it live.
Brad Faxon reveals what changed at PGA National before Shane Lowry’s meltdown
Faxon, like the rest of us, was shellshocked by Lowry’s collapse, but he noticed a few things about how he approached the final stretch of holes that could explain his meltdown.
He revealed what he saw at PGA National to SiriusXM PGA TOUR Radio, “The wind had switched on Sunday, so instead of a helping wind on that hole coming out of the east or southeast, it was coming out of the north, northeast and against right to left.
“Now, I think, if I look back, that Shane tried to press that three iron harder than he normally had to. He probably would have been better off and it’s easy to say this now, hitting a three wood and getting it down farther, and just aiming at the bunker and hitting his little cut shot.
“I think he said in the presser after that he was trying to get too much out of that three iron. And to me, that means drawing it, hitting it over to the right. And then he just lost whatever trust or faith in that swing right in the middle of it.
“Kevin Kisner said it so aptly on the coverage, ‘You can’t even try to hit a shot like that on the range.’ And then it just happens and you just can’t explain it.”
Shane Lowry’s history of meltdowns
It seems shocking that a player of Lowry’s calibre has only won three times on the PGA Tour, but when you look at his tendency to throw away wins late, that number begins to make much more sense.
Lowry’s first major brush with a Sunday fade occurred at the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Holding a four-shot lead entering the final round, he struggled to a 6-over 76. His inability to find fairways allowed Dustin Johnson to storm past him.
And he has a particularly tortured history at PGA National. Before his 2026 Cognizant Classic collapse, he suffered a weather-induced heartbreak in 2022.
In the 2022 Honda Classic (now the Cognizant), Lowry was chasing Sepp Straka. As he stood on the 18th tee needing a birdie to force a playoff, a tropical storm opened up only on his group.
Soaked and unable to see the fairway, he scrambled for par and lost by one, later calling it a bad break that felt like a stolen win.
But his Sunday struggles have reached a climax this year. He led on the 72nd hole at the Dubai Invitational before hitting his bunker shot into the water, then threw away his next opportunity to win at the Cognizant.
It’s strange that the man who holed the Ryder Cup retaining putt at Bethpage Black last year can struggle so much in these moments, but Lowry’s search for a first individual win since 2019 continues.