SHANE Lowry has surged up the Official World Golf Rankings over the past twelve months.
2024 was a solid year for the 2019 Open champion after a poor season the year prior.
And now he heads into this week’s API at Bay Hill with a major career milestone within reach.
The Clara ace had to rely on a sponsor’s invite last year to qualify for the 2024 edition of this week’s Signature Event, but he’ll have no such worries this year.
In 2023, the Offaly native failed to qualify for the Tour Championship at East Lake, meaning he had to find alternative routes into the bigger events on the PGA Tour in 2024 after failing to earn qualification status.
He took full advantage of last year’s event, won by Scottie Scheffler, as he finished third on the leaderboard, setting his season on track.
The 37-year-old Lowry was ranked 54th in the world prior to last year’s API but moved up to 34th after a solid showing, finishing behind Wyndham Clark and world number one Scheffler.
In fact, he hit 57th place on the OWGR ladder in 2023, which was his lowest ranking since winning his maiden major at The Open in 2019.
But Arnold Palmer’s event proved to be the benchmark for his season, as he went on to win the Zurich Classic with Rory McIlroy before contending at the PGA Championship and The Open.
Lowry entered the 2025 campaign ranked 28th in the world, and his solid form has continued into the first quarter of the Tour’s season.
He’s only played four times on the U.S. Tour this season but finished inside the top 15 in two of those events.
The Irishman ended last week’s Cognizant Classic tied for 11th, following a second-place finish at the last Signature Event, won by Rory McIlroy at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Now, he ranks 17th in the world ahead of a tough test at Bay Hill.
His current ranking is just one place outside his career-best position of 16th on the OWGR ladder, which occurred after his 2019 Open win at Royal Portrush.
If Lowry were to replicate or improve upon last year’s performance at this week’s elevated event, he would almost certainly surpass his best-ever ranking.
The API offers a $20,000,000 purse, with huge world ranking and FedEx Cup points on offer.
All the action gets underway on Thursday as the second event of the Florida Swing tees off.
