Firstly, all credit to Ireland’s Shane Lowry.

As guttered and clearly as hurt as he was in tragically letting slip victory at the 2026 Cognizant Championship, Lowry spoke to the media following his final round 69 on the host PGA National course.

Lowry spoke of his bitter disappointment in losing out in warmly embracing his four-year-old , ginger-haired daughter, Ivy running out onto the 18th hole green to embrace her father.

Lowry, and contesting the event for a ninth occasion, eventually shared second place two shots behind Columbian Rico Echavarria, who came from two shots back with a few holes remaining, to win by two and collect a third PGA Tour win.

It was a sad occasion not only for the Lowry’s but for all golf fans the world over, as no honest golf fan wishes to ever witness what unfolded over the closing three holes of the PGA Tour event.

HEART-BREAKING REVELATION ….

As @ShaneLowryGolf bravely reveals he wanted to @the_cognizant for his 4⃣-year-old daughter, Ivy

“Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world”

Must read:… pic.twitter.com/Nlt22bDjKR

— Fatiha (@TOURMISS) March 2, 2026

Hereunder is Lowry talking after what unfolded today at PGA National, and just a few miles from his family’s Barren Isles Resort residence.

“I’m obviously extremely disappointed,” said Lowry.  “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 said to Darren, how do I feel like this now when I went through what I did last September in Bethpage and got through that fine. 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.

“What can I say? It’s very disappointing. 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.

Q. You’ve had some late stumbles here before, notably in 2022 — going down the stretch today was that —

SHANE LOWRY: I wouldn’t say that was a stumble. I’d say I was beaten that day. But I beat myself today.

Q. Was any of the scar tissue or falling —

SHANE LOWRY: No, because I was beaten that day. I hit all the shots that day, and I got beaten.

Today I hit two really bad shots at the wrong time, and that’s what this course does to you.

Q. Was there a shadow from somebody on 16? Did that throw you off as you were setting up?

SHANE LOWRY: No. No.

Q. You’ve obviously been through all kinds of emotions as a professional golfer when you’ve been in this situation. What do you do? How do you recover? Do you just move on and try to forget it?

Shane Lowry’s now four-year old daughter, Ivy. Image – Getty

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, you have no choice, do you. I have a tee time next Thursday in Bay Hill, and I have no choice but to move on.

The hardest thing about today is I’ve never won in front of my four-year-old, and she was there waiting for me. Yeah, I only wanted it for her today. I didn’t want it for — 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 3-iron on 16 and did the only thing I couldn’t really do.

Q. Had you used a 3-iron the last three days on 16?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, yeah, every day. I always hit it down there, yeah.

Q. What was the head space when you teed off on 17?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, no, I had an unbelievable up-and-down, obviously, to make 6 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. Wind was slightly in 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.