Lowry’s daughter comments add extra pain as he blows three-shot lead

This one hurt.

He went into the final day in the lead, and had played his fourth round beautifully, with an eagle, four birdies and the rest pars, in his first 15 holes.

Disaster struck at 16 when he sliced his three-iron tee shot into water on the right, and even had to make a tough up-and-down for double bogey.

When Colombian Nico Echavarria, a hole ahead of the Offaly man, birdied 17, the two men were level, with Lowry clearly spooked.

He subsequently put another in the water, hitting his seven iron miles to the right, in what was a 'bread-and-butter' shot for him.

He would par 18 and end up losing by two to Echavarria.

After the round, Lowry tried his best to sum up what went wrong.

He said: “I'm obviously extremely disappointed.

“I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away. What more can I say? That's twice this year now so far. I'm getting good at it.”

“Yeah, look, what can I say? I played unbelievable all day, and one bad shot on 16 completely threw me for the last three holes.

“It's never happened to me before.

“I just felt like it was weird out there; I just really - yeah, just couldn't feel the club face the last three holes, then after my tee shot on 16. It was strange.

“I had an unbelievable up-and-down, obviously, to make six and stay one ahead, but then I go up and watch Nico hole that putt for birdie to go tied for the lead.

“Like, it was a perfect number for me, and it suited me perfectly. The wind was slightly out of the left, and that's my bread and butter: a little chip 7-iron. But golf does strange things to you at times, and it certainly did it to me today.”

With his daughter waiting for him at 18, it made it all the more harder for the Clara native.

He added: “The hardest thing about today is I've never won in front of my four-year-old, and she was there waiting for me.

“I only wanted it for her today. I don't care about anything else. I wanted it so bad. 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.

"I didn't get ahead of myself, but I felt so comfortable out there, and then yeah, tried to get a lot out of my three-iron on 16 and did the only thing I couldn't really do.”