AUGUSTA, Ga.—With Rory McIlroy holding a historic lead before the third round of the Masters, Shane Lowry needed a pair of miracles to work his way into contention. McIlroy, the player torching the field, would first have to run suddenly cold, and then Lowry would need some magic of his own.
Shane Lowry waves after a hole-in-one on the sixth hole during the third round of the Masters (AP)
McIlroy held up his end of the bargain with an out-of-nowhere fit of struggles that erased his advantage. But the moment galleries here will remember came when Lowry gripped his club at the sixth tee.
That’s when Lowry became the first player in history to record a hole-in-one at the Masters—twice.
Lowry stepped up at the 190-yard sixth hole and delivered a 7-iron right on line with the flagstick before it trickled into the side of the cup. The 39-year-old from Ireland lifted his arms in the air before pumping his fists over and over as the crowd went berserk, a nearly identical recreation of his celebration after his previous ace at Augusta National in 2016. Only this time Tommy Fleetwood, the Englishman paired with Lowry, joined the celebrations and gave his Ryder Cup teammate a hug.
“It gives you, obviously, a huge kind of boost,” Lowry said. “It’s getting real now.”
That helped Lowry finish the day at 9-under and in fourth place heading into Sunday’s final round, two shots behind McIlroy and American Cameron Young, the co-leaders. A flurry of miscues torpedoed McIlroy out of the lead entirely for a brief moment on Saturday before he steaded himself to finish 1-over for the day and 11-under overall.
And no matter what happens Sunday, the hole-in-one cemented Lowry’s reputation as golf’s resident ace specialist.
There hadn’t been a single hole-in-one at the Masters since 2022, when Stewart Cink carded one on the 16th—the same hole Lowry had aced six years earlier with a brilliant 8-iron. And until Lowry’s bolt from the blue on Saturday, there had been only three holes-in-one over the past half-century at No. 6, a hole named Juniper that has been playing over par for the week.
But for Lowry, the 2019 British Open champion, this was business as usual. In fact, during his last start on the PGA Tour a couple of weeks ago, he carded an ace on the second hole of the final round—with the same club he used on Saturday.
What’s more is that Lowry doesn’t merely have a habit of hitting an iron off the tee and watching his ball drop into the cup just anywhere. Most of his five aces on tour have come at the most famous par-3s on the planet.
Lowry notched his second career hole-in-one on the PGA Tour at the 2022 Players Championship, when he found the cup at perhaps the most picturesque par-3 in golf: the 17th hole with an island green. Three years later, he aced No. 7 at Pebble Beach, the cliff-side hole that at 106 yards manages to be both stunning and treacherous because it’s so steeply downhill.
“I guess it’s just luck of the Irish or something,” he said after that one. “I know I’m pretty good at times, but you know, a bit of luck every now and then is helpful, too.”
Now, Lowry no longer needs a four-leaf clover in his pocket as he tries to win his first green jacket. After McIlroy paced the Masters by six strokes entering Saturday, he fell out of the lead for a moment after the reigning champion carded a double bogey then a bogey on consecutive holes. Meanwhile, Young surged into the solo lead briefly with a round of 7-under.
And with a leaderboard that also includes the likes of Scottie Scheffler lurking, Lowry knows he might need something special again to clinch his second career major.
“It’s going to be pretty hard to win this tournament tomorrow,” he said, “but I’ll give it my best.”
