When it comes to long-term planning for the first Major of this – and every – season, the Ricky Bobby mantra of 'If you're not first, you’re last’ might unusually make some small parcel of sense.
Masters winners are invited back to Augusta to compete every year for as long as they please. Year in, year out, past champions attempt to roll back the decades amongst the azaleas with senior stars like Fred Couples (1992 winner) and Bernhard Langer (1985 and 1993) regularly putting it up to the old course – and new stars – with fantastic, age-defying efforts.
Shane Lowry had his best finish at Augusta two years ago, an effort which saw him sign-off in a tie for third place with Cam Smith behind winner Scottie Scheffler and his pal and countryman Rory McIlroy.
But third place doesn’t give you that lifelong golden ticket to the chocolate factory. A point which Lowry acknowledged this week in conversation with Greg Allen of RTÉ Sport.
"Nobody remembers who finished third at the Masters," the Offalyman said, flatly. "It was a step [2022], but in 20 years’ time, 'finished third' at the Masters doesn’t get you back through those gates. First does. That’s the main goal."
Lowry followed up that 2022 run with a solid tied-16th finish last year as Jon Rahm took the Green Jacket before hightailing it off to the LIV Tour. The Spaniard is back to defend his title this year and Lowry knows if he is to climb the mountain, he has to overcome the game’s best to do it.
"It’s hard to look past the top players in the world," Lowry said. "Am I in the next category after that? Possibly. But I’m certainly not here to make up the numbers. I’m here to compete, that’s what I do every week. It’s what I live for, I live for weeks like this, it’s the reason why I get out of bed in the morning.
"I’m very happy to be here, looking forward to the challenge ahead, but if you start looking at Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clarke, Rory McIlroy... it’s hard to look past those players but I’ll do my best to finish on top of them.
"It’s very important that you’re playing decent golf coming into it. Just because you were there a year ago or two years ago doesn’t give you a God-given right to be there this year,
"You still have to prepare as best you can and just do everything you feel is right and go and try and be free and go and let yourself play golf when it gets to Thursday.
"Thursday through Sunday, anything can happen. I always say, put yourself there Saturday afternoon and then may the luck of the golf gods be with you for the next 27 holes and you never know what could happen.
"I’m playing OK, there’s no two ways looking at it, I’m playing nicely. I’m very happy where my game is at but, like I said, there’s no god given right to come out here and compete and play well. You just have to do everything you think is right and go out there Thursday and give it everything.
"I’ll prepare as best as I can over the next few days. Yeah, my results have been nice of late. I’ll go out there and give it everything I have from Thursday to Sunday and hopefully it’s good enough.
No Irishman has ever won the green jacket. McIlroy has famously come close a number of times as he awaits the final piece of the Grand Slam jigsaw and Pádraig Harrington arguably could have won Zach Johnson’s Masters in 2007.
Having won the 2019 Open Championship, Lowry, as best he can, is trying not to let the prospect of becoming the first Irish champion of Augusta distract him before Thursday’s opening round.
"There’s a lot standing between me and that right now," Lowry deflected. "So I try not to think about things like that because obviously it would be a huge achievement. But something that I’ve thought about a little bit over the last number of years. I’d give anything to be that person."
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