Shane Lowry during the 2024 Masters Tournament. | Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Blustery conditions have made things extremely difficult for the 89 players at this year’s Masters Tournament.
Wind gusts reached 40 miles per hour at Augusta National on Friday, bringing carnage to the 88th edition of The Masters.
That explains why so many players have struggled, including Shane Lowry, who honestly assessed the conditions after his 2-over 74.
“It’s so hard out there. It’s honestly a lot of guesswork and a lot of luck involved. It’s hard to hole putts. It’s hard to hit it close,” Lowry said.
“The wind is all over the place. I’ve never seen it like this. That was probably the toughest two days of golf that I’ve played.”
Lowry, who hails from Ireland, has seen plenty of tough weather on the course. Look no further than his Open Championship triumph in 2019 at Royal Portrush, where he battled the wind and rain to claim his first major championship.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Shane Lowry and Akshay Bhatia during the 2024 Masters.
But the wind at Augusta swirls like no other place in the world.
“It’s hard to pick a wind, and it’s hard to get it right if we were playing around a normal golf course, but you’re playing around Augusta National, where you have to be so precise,” Lowry said.
“You’re trying to pitch the ball; you don’t have much to pitch the ball in. You can be made to look like an idiot out there today by not doing too much wrong. Look, I’m not overly happy with my two days’ work, but I’m here for the weekend, and I’ll give it a run.”
Lowry hit plenty of fairways and plenty of greens but struggled with the putter. He nearly lost two strokes on the green putting on Friday, according to DataGolf.
“The hardest part out there is putting, I find anyway,” Lowry said.
“The hardest part out there is to hole putts. I’ve got 10 feet down the hill on 18, one of the easiest putts you can get. I said to [my caddie] Darren [Reynolds], I’ve hit this putt. I know what this putt does. It never moves as much as you think. I still couldn’t manage to hit a good putt and hole it. It’s just hard.”
Despite Lowry’s struggles, he managed to keep levity alive.
Lowry’s funniest comment had to do with his playing partner Akshay Bhatia, who also sits at 3-over midway through the championship. The young, slim Bhatia earned his way into The Masters thanks to his win at last week’s Valero Texas Open.
Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Akshay Bhatia during the second round of the 2024 Masters.
“The wind was just blowing,” Lowry said.
“I can’t imagine what it was doing to poor Akshay. It was blowing me around the place. He nearly got blown away.”
Bhatia did not, in fact, get blown away like a roof in a hurricane, but he certainly was close to doing so. He is, after all, listed as 6-foot-1, 130 pounds.
“It just swirls so much here. You know what the baseline is of the wind for the day, but it’s just never there,” Bhatia said.
“You can get hurt. You can get help. It gets so tricky in the trees. Generally, I’m a really good wind player, but out here it’s just different. It’s got a mind of its own. It’s interesting.”
Nothing in golf compares to the wind at Augusta National, which routinely gives players fits—major champions and rookies alike.
But because of the brutal conditions, it looks as if both Lowry and Bhatia will make the cut at 3-over. Having a cut higher than that speaks to the difficulty seen this week.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
