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A closing round of 71 meant Lowry finished in a tie for ninth place alongside fellow Irishman Rory McIlroy and Australian Jason Day on level par but, with a better performance on Chambers Bay’s notoriously testing greens, he may have been challenging Jordan Spieth for the title.
Lowry mixed two birdies with four bogeys in an eventful back nine in which, by his own admission, nerves got the better of him at times.
But he grew in composure as the round progressed, making gains at the tenth, 12th and 16th holes and making – yet spurning – countless other opportunities.
A closing bogey left a somewhat sour taste in Lowry’s mouth, but the two-time European Tour champion still left Seattle with experience and positives aplenty.
He said: “I feel like I played the golf today to really have a chance to win at the end, but I missed a couple of short putts for par that you can’t be doing on days like this. I just didn’t do enough on the greens this week – if I’d holed a few more putts, I would’ve had a chance coming down the stretch.
“Even then, I was thinking if I could birdie 17 and 18 and get to three under, I’d have a chance. In the end it wasn’t to be, but it was still a good week for me and I’m probably back inside the top 50 in the world. That was a good coming into the week, so I’m pleased to have achieved that.
“It was a long day today, and I’ll learn from it. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole week, to be honest. I loved the golf course, and I loved how tough it played. Tough courses tend to suit me and bring the best out of me. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how I played. When you walk away from a Major Championship and you feel like you played the golf to win, you’ve got to be happy with yourself.”
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