This one hurts.

After being up three shots late Sunday at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches – going 5 under over a five-hole stretch after making the turn at PGA National – Shane Lowry let the tournament slip through his fingers with back-to-back double bogeys in The Bear Trap before making a rudimentary par on the 72nd hole.

He ended up two shots back of winner Nico Echavarria.

Lowry, who now has had four top-five finishes at this event in the last five years, made two double bogeys in a row for the first time in his TOUR career.

Winning is awfully difficult, especially on the biggest stage in the sport, but this particular week – at this particular tournament – felt like it belonged to Lowry.

Until it didn’t.

“I'm obviously extremely disappointed. I had the tournament in my hands, and I threw it away,” Lowry said.

The last 13 times Lowry has entered the final round in the top three around the world, he has just one win. Now, it was a special one – winning The Open Championship in 2019 – but that victory seven years ago was his last win as an individual. He, of course, won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside Rory McIlroy in 2024.

Lowry, who finished tied for second alongside Taylor Moore and fellow 54-hole leader Austin Smotherman, still put together a fairly solid statistical body of work through the week. He was third in Strokes Gained: Putting, gaining more than five shots on the field, and was 10th in Strokes Gained: Approach to Green. His effort off the tee Sunday was his ultimate undoing, however, as he lost both his tee balls on Nos. 16 and 17 into the water. On the 16th, he had used an iron off the tee the previous three days as a "safe" play and hadn’t ever had a problem until it meant the most.

“I didn't get ahead of myself, but I felt so comfortable out there, and then yeah, tried to get a lot out of my 3-iron on 16 and did the only thing I couldn't really do,” Lowry admitted.

Lowry was also firmly in the mix for a win at the Dubai Invitational earlier this year on the DP World Tour, but made a double bogey on the final hole of the week to end up in a tie for second there as well.

“I’d say I was beaten that day. But I beat myself today,” Lowry said. “What more can I say? That's twice this year now so far. I'm getting good at it. Yeah, look, what can I say? I played unbelievable all day, and one bad shot on 16 completely threw me for the last three holes. It's never happened to me before.

“Geez, this is going to be hard to take. Dubai was hard at the start of the year, but this is going to be pretty hard.”

Hard, especially, Lowry admitted, because he had a chance to win in front of his 4-year-old daughter for the first time. She was there waiting for him.

“I only wanted it for her today. ... I don't care about anything else. I wanted it so bad. Just to see her little ginger hair running down the 18th green would have been the most special thing in the world. I thought I had it. I thought I was going to win..”

Almost everyone else thought the same. But with golf, like life, time goes on.

“I have a tee time next Thursday in Bay Hill,” Lowry said, “and I have no choice but to move on.”