With the regular season about to come to a close, Ireland's Shane Lowry is at risk of missing out on the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time in five years.
Lowry, who has qualified for the playoffs in each of the last four seasons, currently sits in 76th in the FedEx Cup standings heading into this week's Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C.
The 70 golfers with the most FedEx Cup points earn a spot in the postseason field, and Lowry knows time is running out if he wants to keep his streak alive.
"I'm here because I want to make it into next week," Lowry said. "I think it's easy to sit here and go, ‘Oh, I just want to play well, I want to go out and try and win the tournament.' No, at the end of the day, I want to make it into next week, I want to make it into the playoffs and I want to make a run at the playoffs.
"You know, at this stage I'm sitting here and I still feel like I can make the Tour Championship, so that's an exciting place to be. I think obviously I would prefer if I was in a better spot coming in here, but I'm not. It is what it is now and I'm going to need a good week this week."
Lowry, 36, is coming off a poor performance in his most recent outing, missing the cut at the Open Championship -- an event he won back in 2019 -- after following up a first-round 72 with a 77. He has just one top-10 finish this season, recording a tie for fifth at the Honda Classic on Feb. 26.
"I think there's been a lot of good, not much great (play this season), which on the PGA Tour doesn't cut it," Lowry said. "I think I've had a lot of, say if you look at probably a lot of top-20 finishes, but you need those great weeks, you need those top-5s to move up the FedExCup points list.
"You finish -- you come off a week finishing 15th to 20th, and you feel like you've played well but you don't get many FedExCup points, you don't get what you feel like you might deserve from your play."
Despite the few peaks and occasional valleys, Lowry is still within striking distance of the playoffs. He currently has 556 FedEx Cup points, sitting just behind Davis Thompson (559 points), Sweden's David Lingmerth (561), South Korean K.H. Lee (567), South Africa's Garrick Higgo (586) and Ben Taylor of England (592).
Austin Eckroat, who holds the coveted 70th and final playoff spot, has 594 points.
"I feel like I've been in this -- not this situation, but I've been in situations like this quite a bit over the last number of years," Lowry said. "I remember playing here one year, I'd been told I needed a top-10 to get to the playoffs, I finished seventh and I missed out by one point. So I feel like the playoffs nearly owes me one at this stage, so hopefully -- that's what I'm trying to tell myself this year.
"I feel like I've been playing some pretty good golf most of the year. I'm coming off the back of a pretty bad week at The Open, which I was very disappointed with, but I had a nice holiday with my family last week to kind of regroup and hopefully get going again this week."
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