Unlike compatriot Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry has had an abysmal showing at Quail Hollow Club, site of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.
Lowry has failed to qualify twice in his four appearances at this course, finishing tied for 64th and tied for 34th. He has only broken par once while competing here, in 2018 when he finished 12 strokes behind winner Jason Day with a final-round 2-under 69.
But Lowry, who just won the Zurich Classic in New Orleans with McIlroy, feels he has a solid game plan to attack Quail Hollow and change the narrative.
“this [course] Suitable for long hitters. I’m not short, but I’m not a tall person either. I don’t feel the need to try to be one of the sluggers this week, you know what I mean? ” Lowry said.
“There are a lot of holes here, and when you stand on the tee, you want to hit the ball hard off the tee. If you can get the ball in play and hit the fairway, it can be dangerous. I feel like my iron play is my strength, so that’s my game plan this week if I can hit a lot of fairways, but there’s a lot of bunkers out there about 300 yards and I hit some really good bunkers. If you can hit it, you can fly it, but if you can’t hit it, it’s good, but it’s probably going to be bad.”
At this point in the season, Lowry ranks first on the PGA Tour in driving accuracy percentage. He hit the fairway 81.55% of the time. This is an amazing number and a quality he will need to rely on this week.
The County Offaly native also ranks third in strokes gained approaching the green. So if he can establish himself at Quail Hollow, he should have a good chance of making birdie at this former PGA Championship venue.
“I’m just going to play within myself this week,” Lowry added.
“I’m glad I was here before the fourth round.” [the PGA Championship] Try playing for a tournament next week and give yourself some chances. ”
Lowry also talked about Bay Hill, the annual host of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and how that course has also had some notorious struggles. Before this year, when he finished solo in third place, Lowry had missed four cuts in five attempts at Bay Hill. The only time he qualified for the weekend was in 2023, when he finished solo in 67th place.
“Bay Hill was a tournament where I did much worse than I do now.” [at Quail Hollow] I was able to play pretty well there. [this year]” said Laurie.
“Hopefully we can do the same this week.”
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through.Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
