Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is an Irish independent podcast. Now, welcome bits and bobs on a Monday. A lot to get through from the weekend. That was happy to say Rory O'Connor here in studio. Rudge, you're very welcome. Nice job. And Conor McKeown. Conor. Hi, Joe. Let's get straight into it, I think. Quiz question. Who won the 2026 Cognizant tournament on the PGA Tour? I forgot his name.
You were both watching this less than 15 hours ago, I would think. Echevarria, wasn't it? It's close. Close enough. Nico Echevarria. Echevarria. This will be remembered, I suppose, as the one that Shane Lowry lost because he was three strokes clear standing on the 16T and all hell broke loose. It's a case of lightning striking twice for him.
Mid-January at the Dubai Invitational, he had a double bogey on the 18th, which he called a disaster. Here's what he had to say. Last night, he did media. I mean, I kind of almost just expected golfers to not do media. And in fairness to him, he did and spoke to the media at large.
So Lowry hasn't won a singles event on either tour since 2022, won that team event with McElroy, obviously more recently. But it's, you know, a bit of a dread for a player of his standard. And he spoke afterwards. I'm obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands and I threw it away. What more can I say? It's twice this year now so far, so I'm getting good at it.
Yeah, look, what can I say?
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Chapter 2: What happened during Shane Lowry's PGA Tour collapse?
I played unbelievable all day and then one bad shot in 16 and completed me through me for the last three holes. It's never happened to me before. I said to Darren, I said, how... How do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September in Betpage and I got through that fine and then, you know, I just felt like it was weird out there.
I just really, yeah, just couldn't feel the club face in the last three holes. Then after my tee shot in 16, it was strange. But, you know, what can I say? It's very, very disappointing. Jeez, like, this is going to be hard to take, yeah. The hardest thing about today is I've never won in front of my four-year-old. She was there waiting for me. I only wanted it for her today.
I don't care about anything else. I wanted it so bad. Just to see her little ginger head running out in the 18 green would have been the most special thing in the world. Thought I had it. Thought I was going to win. I mean, I didn't get ahead of myself, but I felt so comfortable out there. And then, yeah, tried to get a lot out of my three-iron down 16.
Yeah, and did the only thing I couldn't really do. Yeah, which was put in the water, which was all the way right down 16. I'm conscious lots of people wouldn't have seen this. So he'd shot a 63 on the Saturday to put himself in the final group right in contention, had bumped into Jack Nicklaus after the round. Nicklaus said, good round.
Larry kind of, you know, Jack Nicklaus says good round, you know. What can you say except, yeah, it was okay. Nicholas said, finish it off tomorrow. Lowry revealed those two. Obviously, he's a member at the Bears Club in West Palm Beach. I've had lunch a couple of times. Jack's often there playing cards. This was kind of a hometown event for Lowry, sleeping in his own bed.
He has a great record of this course. Four top 11 finishes in his last four events there. And right from the first hole, the putter was hot. And... He put it beautifully. So in his first 15 holes, four birdies, one eagle. He kind of took control of the tournament in a really traditional, emphatic way at a key point in the final round, which was a birdie on nine. And then on the 10th, par five,
Great drive and Radar was sort of saying, look, easy par five downwind, just hit this to 40 feet and two putt for your birdie and move on. And Lowry kind of, relatively speaking, stitches it to kind of 16, 17 feet, an amazing shot and holds the putt for eagle. So like the tournament's his. And then on the 15th, par three into wind, I think to a lot of people's eye, maybe shot of the day.
He just drills it low over water, hint of fade. It's kind of a flex.
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Chapter 3: How does Shane Lowry feel about his recent performance?
It was a flex shot. Like there are levels to the game. It was just an elite shot. And he's walking off the 15th green talking to Austin Smotherman, who is now out of contention. And therefore, you know, it's not kind of a mano a mano dynamic between the two of them. And like they're chatting, they're joking, they're laughing. He just looks beautiful.
And then, as you heard, 16th, iron in his hand, tried to get a bit too much out of it, whiffed it right, bit of hosel reckoned radar. And thereafter, he couldn't feel the club face. 17th, which he said was, and this is over water part three, perfect number for me, suited me perfectly, wind slightly to the left. I'm just going to hit a little chip seven iron, it's my bread and butter.
And he whiffed that way right. And the thing blew up in his face, double bogey, double bogey. absolutely extraordinary drama. You know, this is why golf is kind of compelling to those of us who love golf. It's not over until it's over. It's kind of as big a collapse as you tend to see of an average year in the PGA Tour. Oh yeah, it was excruciating.
Even if you were watching that casually and Shane Lowry was, you know. Austin Smotherman. Austin Smotherman. You would genuinely ache, I think, for somebody that has to go through that. You can just tell how lonely a place it is with the world kind of caving in around you. And it is why golf is so compelling.
And it is why many people don't find Scotty Schefter that compelling because he just keeps doing it all the time. And golf is one of those sports where the sort of human condition, the weakness of the human condition comes into play. And like the big thing for Larry here isn't that, you know, he coughed up a million sheets or whatever it is. It's that he needs to get a win.
You know, the meat of the golf season is coming. It's Bay Hill this week. It's the players. It's Augusta. And it's been a long time. And for a golfer of his standard, he doesn't win with the same frequency as other golfers that are ranked in around himself. And it seems to have become a bit of a self-perpetuating thing. Like I did think he was playing so well.
I mean, we already know he's an elite ball striker. The statistics bear that out. He hits the ball as well as anybody else. He calls himself a streaky putter. He put it like a god yesterday. You put those two things together and he's going to contend absolutely everywhere. So in terms of his own game coming together, it was the perfect alignment of the planets.
And then it was simply a case of somebody not being able to do something that is mundane and routine for them when the pressure is on. And then the second act of that is when it goes wrong the first time. Like all elite sports people, you know, will make mistakes. But the really, really elite ones are the ones who can regain their composure the quickest and the best. And he didn't.
And like you can see the PGA Tour had that dispersion map, you know, of all the shots on 16 where they all landed. And like Lowry's one is so much worse than the second worst shot, you know. So for a guy who strikes the ball so well, that's like if he gave him that shot, it's a three iron, right?
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Chapter 4: What are the implications of Lowry's struggles for his career?
Teams have obviously figured out where they're weak. And they still haven't really got the most sort of functioning attack from open play. But they don't care as long as they kind of get it done here. So, I mean, it makes for an exciting one way title race, but you wouldn't want to have to sit down and watch every minute of it. 16 goals from corners is now a joint record in the Premier League.
They are going to smash this record. There's still 10 games to go. They've equaled. Of course, Oldham in 92-93. I don't need to tell you that, Rudd. West Brom in 16-17. And of course, Arsenal themselves in 23-24 with 10 games to go, 16 goals from corners. The Athletic have just published a piece. It's their understanding that Nicholas is a Jover or Jover? I think he's Jover.
Their set-piece coach. He now is on a bonus for goals scored from dead balls. Yeah. Apparently the Athletics say he was attracting interest from elsewhere. He had a strong hand in negotiations. So the set piece coach is on a goal bonus from dead ball situations. So that's where the point of emphasis is. Chelsea, seven red cards in 28 Premier League matches. It's every four games. It's a lot.
Would you even think of Chelsea as a tough team? Oh, Chelsea. It's not like Chopper Harris. It's hard to know what Chelsea stand for anymore. It's such an expensively assembled collection of players that don't really stand for anything. You've just distracted me with thoughts of Ian Marshall and the Oldham team in 1993. There's a flex. Shane Laring in the 15th.
It's a funny title race in that this should be absolutely thrilling. There are 10 games to go.
two point gap assuming City win their game in hand 10 games to go two point gap both have it in their own hands yeah Arsenal still have to go to City City yeah so why is this grabbing like the Liverpool City race of a couple of years ago felt very alive this should be like the most grip god this title race they They both have it in their own hands. It's the profile of the team.
Like City have won everything and now they're at a stage where the team doesn't really lack that much of identity because they're changing a fair bit from the great team and the City fans, like they stopped showing up for games. They'd won so much. So they're bringing a weird kind of an energy to it. And then the Arsenal thing has become almost tedious because they've been so close so often.
I remember watching at the time the All or Nothing of Arsenal and it was that season where he kind of like got rid of Aubameyang and brought in some young players and And you could see the joy in the Arsenal fans face. It was like, where could this go? And there was young Arsenal players and they were unknown quantities. And now there's something so utterly deliberate about Arsenal.
You can see, OK, they don't have a president midfield, spend 100 million on Declan Rice. They need a striker, the guy who scored 60 goals in Portugal last year, they sign him. And it all... There's no real kind of, there's nothing romantic about this. It'd be one thing if this expensively and deliberately assembled team were kind of winning 4-0 every week and scoring brilliant goals.
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