Shane Lowry likely won’t be used in any promotional materials for Oakmont Country Club.
The 38-year-old Irishman had a hot-mic meltdown during Friday’s U.S. Open at the Pittsburgh-area course after missing a close putt for par on his fourth hole en route to his 17-over par finish.
“F–k this place,” Lowry said before tapping in the bogey to place him at 14-over. “F–k this place.”
Oakmont is known for being a course that can mess with some of the world’s best and this year’s edition has been no different.
Lowry missed the cut by posting a 79-78 in his 36 holes, joining the likes of Phil Mickelson (8-over), 2016 winner Dustin Johnson (10-over) and 2024 champion Bryson DeChambeau (10-over) as standouts who will not be in action Saturday.
In 2016, Lowry had a much better run at the course by finishing tied for second with a 1-under showing.
Warning: NSFW language
He didn’t come close to replicating his effort this year.
Lowry bogeyed five holes and double bogeyed three times while finishing 9-over during his first 18 holes, before bogeying five holes again and double bogeying a pair to tally an 8-over mark Friday.
Thursday’s action featured Lowry taking out his frustrations on a microphone at the 17th hole after he could not get his ball out of the rough.
The broadcast captured Lowry seemingly smacking the microphone.
Friday also featured Lowry making a mental blunder when he grabbed his ball on the 14th hole but failed to put his marker down, resulting in a one-stroke violation.
“Probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done,” Lowry said with a laugh, per Yahoo. “I picked the ball up, had the ball in my hand, turned around to (caddie) Darren (Reynolds) and he basically said to me, ‘What the f–k are you doing?’ … By then, maybe my mind was somewhere else.”
This poor showing comes after Lowry finished second in a pair of events this year, including the Truist Championship last month.
He acknowledged before the tournament began that Oakmont can be “exhausting.”
“I don’t know to be honest,” Lowry said of his showing, per Yahoo. “I drove it in play a lot (Thursday), did what I was supposed to do off the tee, and then just didn’t have my game that I’ve had for the last while. And then I really struggled on the greens (Thursday), and the round got away from me out here, and that was it.
“They let it sort of do what they said it wouldn’t do, but that’s all fine, that’s the U.S. Open. I just made obviously too many doubles, too many big mistakes, and then when I got a couple chances, I didn’t convert them. I didn’t really do much right to be honest, other than I drove the ball as good as I’ve probably driven the ball in a long time. So, yeah, weird couple of days.”
Sam Burns is the course’s leader at 3-under entering Saturday’s action, while the scorching Scottie Scheffler needs a run at 4-over.