PALM BEACH GARDENS — Just playing such iconic venues as Augusta, Pebble Beach and TCP Sawgrass in Ponta Vedra are Bucket List items for any golfer.
Now, imagine being able to celebrate a hole-in-one on each and what that would mean.
Jupiter’s Shane Lowry knows that feeling. And like the number of shots it took to accomplish that feat at each hole, he is one of one.
Lowry completed that Holy (in-one) Trinity a month ago at the No. 7 during the Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He hit a wedge from 113 yards on what is considered golf’s most picturesque hole. The green drops about 40 feet from the tee box with a backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.
“The thing is, if you were to pick five holes in the world to get to make a hole-in-one, the three that I have will be on the top five,” Lowry said.
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Lowry was asked to rank his three aces. The others occurred on No. 17 at the 2022 Players Championship (the famous island green) and No. 16 at Augusta National during the 2016 Masters.
“It’s hard to really rank them,” he said this week from the Cognizant Classic in the Palm Beaches. “They’re all special. Pebble was very cool. I just think I’m very lucky.
“I’ve always said that I’ve not won maybe as much as I would have liked, but the wins I have are special. The stuff I’ve achieved in the game is very special.”
Among his three PGA Tour wins is the 2019 British Open.
Holes in one race on Nos. 15, 17 at PGA National
A hole-in-one at the Bear Trap at PGA National (Nos. 15 and 17) may not be on that top 5, but considering the difficulty of both holes it would a great accomplishment.
No. 15, which on Friday played 179 yards; and No. 17, which played 142 yards, each has seen two aces in the 18 years the event has been held at PGA National.
Scott Stallings and Jhonattan Vegas aced the 15th in 2017 and Alex Cejka had a hole-in-one on 17 in 2016 and Grayson Murray followed in 2020.
Lowry has parred 15 and 17 each round this week. On 17, he got up and down from 58 feet in Round 1, and two putted from 24 feet in Round 2.
“I’m just happy to make pars in those holes,” he said. “Happy to hit the green.”
Lowry compares No. 17 at PGA National to the most famous par-3 at Augusta, No. 12.
“The way the greens sit it’s tough for right-handers,” he said. “If you’re aiming to the middle of green, and you pull it, it goes long. If you push it short, it’s in the water. So it’s a difficult one to get your distance right on. That’s why a hole with that shape green is quite a difficult par for right handers.
“I would say 17 here is probably easier for left handers than it is for right handers.”
So what’s next for Lowry to check off the bucket list?
“No. 12 at Augusta is probably the one,” he said. “There hasn’t been one there for 40 years or something.”
Make that 37 to be exact. The hole has had three aces, that last by Curtis Strange in 1988. The others in 1959 (amateur William Hyndman) and 1947 (Claude Harmon).
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Shane Lowry’s holes-in-one have occurred at Masters, Players, Pebble Beach
