2015 WGC Bridgestone Invitational results: Shane Lowry edges Bubba Watson at Firestone

The famed “Gary Player Cup trophy” handed out to the winner of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational is heading back to Ireland for the second straight year. Shane Lowry chased down 54-hole leaders Jim Furyk and Justin Rose early on Sunday at Firestone, and then used a bit of luck and incredible recovery shotmaking to edge Bubba Watson for his first PGA Tour win.

Lowry is an accomplished Euro Tour player and has popped up on the first page of the leaderboard of the game’s biggest events on several occasions. He even won the Irish Open as an amateur back in 2009. But he does not play regularly in the States and had never won on the PGA Tour. The World Golf Championships count as both a Euro and PGA Tour event, and they’re among the most lucrative and competitive on both circuits. Only two of the top 50 players in the world were not at Firestone this week, one of them being Lowry’s good Irish friend and the defending champ, Rory McIlroy. Lowry ended up bettering all of them, and as the leaders stalled out he grabbed control and will now take home a $1.57 million winner’s check.

The shot of the day from Lowry or anybody else on the course came at the 10th hole, where the Irishman hit a crazy swinger through the trees and dropped a recovery right on top of the flagstick. The ball materialized out of the ether and set up an easy birdie putt.

Lowry is known in Europe for his incredible hands and short game, an attribute that had Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo comparing him to the legend Seve Ballesteros at the end of the round. The recoveries he pulled off throughout the back nine were Seve-esque in the purest and non-hyperbolic way. Then there was that shot from the woods at the 10th. With a two-shot lead in the final few holes, he just needed to par in for the likely win. Bubba put some pressure on him by posting a 4-under round of 66 ahead, getting to 9-under, but Lowry responded with an outrageous up-and-down par save at the 17th and then another crazy (and a bit fortunate) shot from the trees at the 18th.

He only needed a par to win, but after that shot, a birdie seemed the appropriate way to go out and Lowry poured it in to walk off in style.

In the middle of his back nine, it looked like Lowry would play all the way in without much pressure from the rest of the field. But there was Bubba at yet another WGC event climbing the leaderboard and forcing Lowry to grind out those recovery pars and keep his pace at double-digit under-par. Bubba already has a WGC win this season, the HSBC Champions, and he was in the lead late on Sunday at the WGC at Doral back in March. Despite some loose iron shots and wayward drives, he still managed to put himself in contention and as the biggest threat to Lowry. He finished the week with an astounding driving average on a course that rewards length and permits bombs off the tee on almost every hole.

Lowry’s work with those hands never opened the door for Bubba, who settles for another massive runner-up check and is off to Whistling Straits, where he lost the 2010 PGA in playoff.

Here are your final results from Firestone:

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