THE PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Shane Lowry

TPC Sawgrass

Quick Quotes

Q. Obviously disappointed in the bogey at the end, but a good day all in all for you.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, yeah, I was happy. I think things have not gone great over the last few weeks, so it's nice to go out there and shoot a decent score. I'm pretty happy. I didn't do much different than I have been, holed a few putts that managed to go in. It was quite nice. Difficult golf course. I watched a bit of the golf this morning and I could see how difficult it was playing and, but that excites me. That kind of gets me, gets my juices flowing, and I like that type of golf.

And look, I love this golf course. This is one of the best we play. And when I arrived here, I missed Bay Hill and arrived here on Sunday, and I came out and did a bit of practice and I couldn't believe the condition it was in. It's one of the best conditioned golf courses I've ever seen. So credit to everyone involved. But, yeah, it's nice to be out there.

Q. You said you made some changes to your putting. Any specific changes?

SHANE LOWRY: I changed my grip. I've been left hand low my whole life and I've gone right hand low this week and I did it for a couple of rounds. I did it the final round at Concession and had the best putting round of my season so far. And I didn't do it last week. I kind of went back to left hand low on trying to figure it out that way. And I know I'm a good chipper and I know I've got good hands, so I kind of figured that if I can stand up and just putt like how I chip, and putt with a bit for feel and kind of react to the line as opposed to trying to get everything so perfect, it's nice. But, look, I know more than anyone today is one day. I'm not getting ahead of myself. I kind of have to kind of relax and put today behind me and keep going tomorrow and try and shoot as good a score I can.

Q. You did it at Concession and then you went back to it. Did you think that was like an anomaly?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I mean, I was thinking maybe it was something that, a plastering over, something that was kind of a quick fix more than anything. I felt like if I went back to left hand low I would figure it out. But I really struggled last week and had a really bad putting week last week, so I came here, and it's good to have my coach here, and we decided that we would change it. So it worked today. I just hope that it works for the next few days and the next few years.

Q. So you'll stick with that this week?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I'll see how it goes, but it feels good. It feels good. But it's, there's so much involved with it. It's not just standing up and stroking the putt. It's a mental thing, it's, everything involved in just allowing yourself to do it, allowing yourself to kind of free up and be able to do it. So just so much involved for this game, it's tough at times and, but I've never been one to kind of shy away from a challenge. So I'm really prepared to go out tomorrow and shoot as good a score as I can and hopefully I'll be in a good position this weekend.

Q. You said you watched some golf this morning. You saw it was feast or famine for those guys. Do you learn something, do you change your game plan a little bit from watching golf?

SHANE LOWRY: Well, I definitely learned that, I turned on the golf and I think a few guys in the first 10 shots I seen into 17 were one bounce and over the green. And I stood there on the 17th tee and it was a pitching wedge number, and I just said to my caddie, I said, I'm not hitting a pitching wedge. There's no chance. So I just hit a gap wedge into the middle of the green and holed the putt, so that was nice. But, yeah, you do learn little things. You kind of, you learn how, you learn how difficult it's playing, which kind of, for me mentally, kind of frees me up a little bit, so just go out there and grind it out, just, I know that I can grind out good scores.

So, yeah, I've always watched -- I'm a big watcher of golf anyway. I watch it whenever I have weeks off. I watch it all the time, so it's just a given that I do it and I probably do learn a little bit from it. On the weeks where guys are out there shooting 10-under on a Thursday before you tee off, it's not very nice, but when you see guys struggling, you go, all right, well, if I shoot a couple under today it's a good score.