Neil Manchip doesn’t hesitate when the question is put to him.
“Do you think Shane can win the Masters?”
“Yes, I do. Absolutely,” comes the reply.
Manchip has been swing coach to Shane Lowry going back to his amateur days and, for this, the golfer’s 11th time to play in the Masters at Augusta National, there is a belief that he has gained the experience to truly contend.
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“His game is great, he has the approach play, the putting, the whole lot. Like every player in the field next week, he will just be hoping that it comes together at the right time.
“He is so experienced at this stage. He knows his own game, how to treat the week. When to rest, when to practice, when to take some time off and do other things, whether it is with family or friends. Just to try and manage yourself in the week, not to get too stressed out. There is so much stress on the course, with decision making and shot execution, he needs to take it easy off the course and just rest ahead of it,” said Manchip.
Lowry’s best finish in the Masters was tied-third in 2022 and he spent time there earlier in the week getting reacquainted with the course and the questions asked by it before heading home to Florida where Manchip joined him for preparation work ahead of the season’s first Major.
A relaxed outing in last week’s Houston Open seemed to work the oracle for Lowry in terms of getting back into the swing of things, his late collapse in the Cognizant Classic – where he was within touching distance of victory on to implode with two late double-bogeys – followed by missed cuts in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players.
Time is a great healer and, in Manchip’s opinion, his player has moved on.
“Golf is a really difficult game and tournament golf at that level is an incredibly difficult game and it is never over until it is over and you have to focus on every shot ... the better that you get, the more difficult it gets because you’ve higher expectations and standards so the lows are even lower. You can a great run of success, enjoy some tournament wins and some great victories and then you are in bad form when things aren’t working well and you are very low as well.
“The measure of a champion is to just keep putting yourself in that position and anyone who is putting themselves in that position, in whatever area of life or sport, you are putting yourself in a position for failure. You just keep putting yourself out there and keep learning as you go along.”
Dylan Beirne, a data scientist who has worked with Europe’s Ryder Cup team, has ascertained that it takes around 44 rounds around Augusta National for average winner of the Masters.
On that count, Lowry – headed into his 11th with a couple of missed cuts – is in or around that mark.
With the work done between player and coach in Florida in the last few days before getting feet on the ground in Augusta, Manchip observed of the plan in the coming week: “Just talk everything through, make sure the mindset is right, tactics are good and just try to get everything into a good position before the horn goes off on Thursday.”
