Though he was looking for more than a tie for 8th place in the Valspar Championship, Offaly native Shane Lowry has jumped up three notches in the world rankings as he continues his impressive run of form in 2025.
It was his third top 10 of the year with winnings exceeding $3.2 million. Best of all from Lowry's perspective, he finds himself at his highest ever place in the OWGR Rankings. Lowry is now the 12th best golfer on the PGA Tour. He started 2025 in 27th place, so it's clear Lowry has been locked in this year.
The 37-year old was sharing the lead heading into the final round, but slipped down the table as Victor Hovland saw the tournament out with a win.
Lowry finished alongside fellow Irishman Séamus Power. Power shot up fifteen spots to reach 110th in the world after recording his first top ten finish since August of last year.
Speaking before the Players Championship, which finished up only a few days before the Valspar Championship commenced, the 2019 Open winner mentioned one of his goals for 2025, and Lowry seems to be closing in on it already.
You’ll have the naysayers saying there’s obviously a few guys that could be ahead of me that are not playing on this tour, but it is what it is.
And I’ve always based a level of achievement around world rankings.
Certainly, one of my goals at the start of the year was to get to my highest world ranking and to go up towards that top 10.
Though he is sitting out this weekend's Texas Children's Houston Open, Lowry will be able to test his abilities against first and second in the world, Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy respectively, in the Valero Texas Open at the start of April. If there was a chance for him to reach his goal as soon as possible, it would definitely come against the two best in the world.
The Masters follows that, and it will certainly be one of Lowry's biggest tests yet, but looking at how this year's tour has been going for him, he will certainly be one to watch. All eyes will be on his buddy Rory McIlroy but Lowry looks ready to compete at a course he's played well on in the past.
