Shane Lowry aims to put Dubai Invitational disappointment in the past

Dubai: Shane Lowry will be keen to bounce back from his final-hole disappointment in the Dubai Invitational as he prepares for his 10^th Desert Classic.

Lowry was moments away from claiming his first DP World Tour title on Sunday as he found himself top of the leaderboard during an exciting final round.

After three birdies in his first four holes, the 38-year-old had a one-shot lead heading into the 72nd hole, before tragedy struck as he found the bunker with his second shot into the closing par-four before finding water with his third.

A double-bogey on the final hole saw Lowry slip to a tie for third, two strokes behind champion Nacho Elvira.

“I'm okay now,” said Lowry, as he faced the press ahead of the Desert Classic. “I’ll be honest, I went and packed up my stuff at the hotel, and I got in my car and I came over to the hotel for this tournament. I felt like sitting in my room for the evening on Sunday, but I went and met some friends for dinner.”

“I kind of tried to have as good a time as I could, but you go to bed that night and you wake up thinking, what could I have done differently.”

“You can only take positives from it, really. I played great last week, haven't played in a while. First tournament of the year. It's nice to get the year off to a great start and hopefully it's a sign of things to come for the rest of the year.”

Lowry is facing last week’s disappointment head on with the world no 26 positive that he will learn from what was a tough start to his 2026 campaign.  

“I think you can't be stupid and say, let's just forget about last week and move on,” said Lowry. “I think you have to kind of look at what you learned from it.”

“I've been on tour a long time now, and I feel like you're always learning week-to-week, day-to-day, and like last week is no different.”

“The great thing about golf is like even if I won last week, you're still here as another player this week, and you're still here teeing it up on Thursday and you're wanting to play well. No matter what went behind you, it doesn't change anything going forward.”