Shane Lowry hit a hole-in-one at the Masters, and he opened the PGA Championship with a 68. Then, on Friday at Aronimink, he shanked a shot on a par 3 and made double bogey.

The 39-year-old Irishman was well placed heading into the second round of the 108th PGA Championship at Aronimink Golf Club. Two shots off the lead after Thursday, the shank on the par 3 sent him tumbling.

By Friday, Shane Lowry had fallen to even par for the tournament, right on the projected cutline, according to Golfweek.

The par 3s at Aronimink had already been a thorn in Lowry's side. He dropped shots on two of the three par 3s in Round 1, the only blemishes on an otherwise solid card.

He explained the difficulty after Thursday's round. "The par-3s are incredibly difficult. They're long around here," Lowry said. "You're standing on the 8th tee, and at the time, the wind was like, who knows how far it was playing. But it was just a 7-wood, and it was just kind of hit it and hopefully it gets around the green."

The shank on Friday worsened Lowry's struggles on the par 3s, as the resulting double bogey erased much of the momentum from his opening 68, which had been one of the joint second-best scores of Thursday despite him not feeling fully comfortable.

"I was a little bit nervous at the start, to be honest," he admitted. "I felt uncomfortable out there for a while. If anything, that kind of focuses me more."

Shane Lowry's Tough Season Made Harder

Lowry's 2026 season has been a difficult one. He has more missed cuts than top-10 finishes this year.

The low point came at the Cognizant Classic in February, where Lowry blew a three-shot lead with three holes remaining after back-to-back double bogeys on the 16th and 17th handed the tournament to Nico Echavarria.

Lowry was candid about what happened afterward. "I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away," he said. "What can I say? It's very disappointing. Geez, this is going to be hard to take."

He came very close again at the Masters last month but missed his chance in the closing moments when it mattered most.

Lowry played excellent golf on Thursday, with strong approach play and sharp work around the greens offsetting an average putting performance. His ball-striking kept him in contention until the costly mistake on the par 3 changed the round.

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Written by

Sneha Abraham

Edited by

Pulkit Prabhav