Shane Lowry struggled to hold back emotion after finishing runner up at the Cognizant Classic admitting the loss hurt more because his daughter Ivy was there waiting for him.

Shane Lowry had a chance to win on Sunday but fell two shots short of Nico Echavarria. After the round he was blunt about how much it stung.

“I’m obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away. Geez, this is going to be hard to take. Dubai was hard at the start of the year, but this is going to be pretty hard,” Lowry said.

He then spoke about his four-year-old daughter, who was at the course.

“She was there waiting for me, and I only wanted it for [Ivy] today…I didn’t care about anything else. I wanted it so bad,” he continued. “Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win.”

A day earlier Lowry had already mentioned her, saying,

“No matter what I shoot tomorrow, my 2-year-old will be there waiting for me.”

The defeat means Lowry is still searching for his first individual PGA Tour win since 2022. He did win the Zurich Classic with Rory McIlroy in 2024, but Sunday would have been a different kind of moment.

Away from golf, Shane Lowry has often spoken about how important family is to him. He met his wife Wendy Honner in 2012. They got engaged in 2014 during a trip to Dubai and married in New York in 2016 in a small ceremony before hosting a reception at the Mandarin Oriental.

This time, the trophy slipped away. What stayed with him was the image of his daughter waiting at the end of the round.

Where did it go wrong for Shane Lowry in the final round?

Shane Lowry had put himself in a great position before the final round even began. He opened with a 70 on Thursday, followed with a 67 on Friday, and then posted 63 on Saturday to take the lead into Sunday.

Lowry started the final round steadily, making pars early and just one birdie through the front nine. Then he suddenly found momentum. Lowry birdied the ninth, eagled the 10th, and added more birdies on the 12th and 13th to move clear of the field.

The turning point came at the 16th hole. Trying to play it safe, he used an iron off the tee, but the shot drifted into the water and led to a double bogey. At the same time, Nico Echavarria made a birdie ahead, wiping out Lowry’s lead.

Things got worse at the very next hole. Another tee shot found the water, resulting in a second straight double bogey. In just two holes, Lowry went from leading the tournament to chasing.

He still had one last chance at the par-5 18th, needing something special to force a playoff. Instead, his approach shot ended up in a bunker, ending those hopes.

Shane Lowry shot 69 for the day, with four birdies and an eagle, but the late mistakes proved costly. He finished tied for second, two shots behind the winner.