Call it a case of Shane Lowry and his caddie mixing up their signs.
On the final hole of Saturday’s third round at the DP World Tour’s 2022 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Lowry lined up his drive with an HSBC sign and piped what he envisioned to be a perfect shot. Unfortunately, his caddie, Bo Martin, had Lowry aiming at a completely different sign.
The mishap put the winner of the 2019 British Open in a difficult spot.
“Myself and Bo, we were aiming at the HSBC sign but his one was 30 yards right of the one I was looking at,” Lowry said after the round. “New course, I thought I hit a perfect shot. I couldn’t believe it came down where it did. It was a bad mistake to make because we shouldn’t be doing it in that situation.”
Lowry used an impressive two-putt to salvage par, however, and after finishing the day with a 67 he sits just a single shot off the lead heading into Sunday’s final round at Yas Links. Scott Jamieson holds the lead at 11 under while Lowry and Thomas Pieters are a stroke back. Viktor Hovland is in the hunt despite a 74 on Friday; his 70 in the third round has him at 8 under for the tournament, and in a tie for third place with Shubhankar Sharma.
Due to his save on 18, Lowry feels good about his chances heading into the final round.
“I was very fortunate,” Lowry said. “It could have been a different story. I might not be standing here, I might be sitting in the locker room sulking right now.
“But I’m happy with the way I’ve played overall. I’m really happy with how the week’s gone and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
