Dubai: Shane Lowry’s WGC-Bridgestone Invitational victory catapulted him from 27th place to fourth in the Race to Dubai standings on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Irishman, whose last win came at the Portugal Masters in 2012, finished 11 under par (269) at Akron two strokes clear of next placed Bubba Watson.
He bagged 1,412,759 Race to Dubai points for the biggest victory of his career to take his total for the season to 2,104,984 — 770,660 behind current race leader Rory McIlroy who will mark his return from injury at this weekend’s US PGA Championship.
“It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?,” said Lowry, who held off challenges from overnight leaders Justin Rose and Jim Furyk, as well as Watson — all three of which are Major champions — to become the first non-PGA Tour member to win the event since Martin Kaymer in 2011. “I said at the start of the week, I’d take eight under par, and I thought that might win. So to shoot 11 under par on this golf course just shows a lot about my game, that it’s good enough to compete at any level.”
It was a great week for European Tour players all round with Rose finishing in a share of third place alongside Furyk to claim 422,928 points and move up a place to fifth in The Race to Dubai with 1,796,042.
DP World Tour Championship holder Henrik Stenson moved up from 16th to 10th in The Race to Dubai (1,109,213 points) while Brooks Koepka moved from 31st to 24th (823,523 points) as the pair each finished in a share of sixth place.
Denmark’s Søren Kjeldsen, winner of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in May, produced another assured performance to finish three under par in a share of 12th place to move up two places to 18th in the rankings with 944,124 points, while Patrick Reed finished in a share of 15th place at two under par to claim 98,083 points which takes his Race to Dubai total to 597,486 (37th place) and should secure his DP World Tour Championship spot.
Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Danny Willet and Branden Grace all enjoyed top 20 finishes after ending the tournament one under par in a share of 17th place.
