MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 9, 2026

Shane Lowry

Quick Quotes

Q. Shane, can you give us your thoughts on the opening round?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it was pretty good. I'm pretty happy. Obviously I got off to a great start, and I was feeling great. Then obviously I had a mishap on the fourth, and I thought I did a great job of kicking on from there.

I know I bogeyed six, but I made a great par save on seven and birdied eight and nine. That kind of really got me going, and I really felt like I plotted my way around the course nicely today.

Q. The eagle at 13. Hitting a shot like that, what does that do for you?

SHANE LOWRY: To be honest, it's been a number that I'm not overly comfortable with or I haven't been, and I did work on it a lot over the last two weeks. It was nice to pull it off.

I knew when it was in the air, it was really good, but I knew it was going to go close, but it was nice to see it go in. It kind of gave me a little jump for the rest of the round. I don't feel like I drove it very well on the way in, so I'd like to clean that up for tomorrow, but other than that, it was pretty nice.

Q. Overall, a good, solid opening and great to see a couple of Irishmen up towards the top of the leaderboard.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, he will probably kick on about four in a row or something. Yeah (smiling), it's great to see him up there. He's a hard one to beat. I don't know (laughing).

Q. You said in the buildup that you have to take your lumps on this course when you get hit with one. That par on seven was very important.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's funny. I was here last Monday and Tuesday. On both days it was the same pin on seven. I was playing with Mr. Carr here beside us. I knew the read on the hole perfectly because I had it a couple of days. To be honest, I didn't think they would use the pin in the tournament just on such a slope. Yeah, I rolled that one in nicely, and that kind of gave me a little bit of a kick-start for the rest of my round.

Q. Beautiful through Amen Corner. Then 17, that pin on the right, what do you think?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I hit a good drive off 17. I had 190 odd yards to the pin and a firm green that you don't want to go long. I was trying to hit like a high caught 6-iron. The pitch just over -- it's a hard shot. I said to Darren, Look, I went for the shot, it's a hard shot to pull off.

If anything, I was disappointed with the chip shot. You know, I probably could have got that closer to give myself a better chance. But, look, you're going to do that out here. You just have to take it and move on. I hit a poor tee shot on the last and got a little bit fortunate it came out and hit a great second shot there. That was the best shot I hit all day, the 4-iron into the last. I was pretty happy with that. I hit a decent putt as well, so yeah.

Q. (Indiscernible).

SHANE LOWRY: No, honestly when I get onto the first -- you get onto the first few greens, you realize it's amazing from when I came off the course at half 12:00 yesterday to 10:00 this morning how different it is. Yeah, I'm pretty happy with that.

Q. Patience is the key. You have to roll with the punches. Then after four and six, it was lovely to make birdie on eight and nine to hit the turn.

SHANE LOWRY: Look, I spoke to this with Neil and Darren over the last few days. You know, you can hit good shots around here and make bogeys, and you just have to roll with it. My thing was is, like, I felt like I didn't miss a shot in the first four holes, and obviously I had that mishap on the fourth green.

You can get a bit disheartened or dejected by that, but I felt like I'm in a good frame of mind to kind of just move on and move on from everything. Yeah, I've been around here enough to know that that could happen at certain stages. Obviously it's not ideal if it happens, but yeah.

Q. The club on the first and the club on 13?

SHANE LOWRY: An 8-iron on the first, and it was a lob wedge with 68 yards on 13.

Q. 68?

SHANE LOWRY: 68, yeah. That's what me and Darren had. I don't know what the TV had.

Q. With how tough it's been around here with the dry --

SHANE LOWRY: I think this could be the toughest Masters we've played in a while. You look at the forecast. They can do whatever they want with the golf course this weekend.

I think over the last few years we've had a day every year where it's been raining or it's been heavy rains. It's kind of helped us a little bit, but I think before the week is out, it's going to get very, very crusty around here.