PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Shane Lowry of Ireland plays his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2021 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo b… — PONTE VEDRA BEACH, FLORIDA - MARCH 11: Shane Lowry of Ireland plays his shot from the 14th tee during the first round of THE PLAYERS Championship on THE PLAYERS Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass on March 11, 2021 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Shane Lowry continued his resurgence in form when he fired six birdies in a five-under 66, including four in his last eight holes, to tie for ninth on 11-under par in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.

Heading into The Players at Sawgrass five weeks ago, The Open champion had recorded just two top 10 finishes in the 18 months following his win at Royal Portrush.

But armed with a more reliable putting method, he regained confidence on the greens and now recorded top-10s at Sawgrass and Harbour Town Golf Links as well as a career-best tie for 21st in the Masters.

"I'm pretty happy with it, but I'm going to go away and think what-if with this week because I obviously shot two very good scores and I was pretty poor yesterday," said Lowry, who moves up from 15th to 13th in the European Ryder Cup World Points List. "The golf course probably at its easiest was yesterday, and I just didn't take advantage of it.

“Yeah, but hopefully I can squeeze -- there's a lot of golf left to be played, but hopefully I can squeeze a top 10 out of it and it will be a nice week and a few FedExCup points and stuff like that. Be nice to take into my two weeks off.”

Set to take two weeks off before returning for the Wells Fargo Championship and the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, he added: "I made plenty of birdies this week. I made probably enough birdies to win the tournament, but I just made too many mistakes on Thursday and Saturday."

Lowry was relaxed at Harbour Town where Stewart Cink (47) closed with a 70 to win his eighth PGA Tour title and his second this season, by four strokes from Harold Varner II and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo on 19-under par.

“Yeah, I've done okay here in the past,” said Lowry, who has now recorded top top-10s in four starts on Hilton Head Island. “I like coming here after the Masters because I feel like it's such a chill week. I feel like the Masters is so stressful that you come down here, and I bring my family and it's just nice. It's a nice place to come, a nice place to play golf, and it's a lovely golf course. I would argue that's probably one of the best stops on TOUR.

“I'm always going to come here, but yeah, the Masters does take a lot out of you, and I didn't practice much this week. I played nine holes on Tuesday, and I did about an hour on Wednesday, and I was kind of just resting up as much as I could. I made plenty of birdies this week. I made probably enough birdies to win the tournament, but I just kind of made too many mistakes on Thursday and Saturday.”

Lowry will miss this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans and next week’s Valspar Championship before reappearing at Quail Hollow for the Wells Fargo Championship from May 6-9 before taking another week off before the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island from May 20-23.

“That's kind of what I'm thinking, but I don't really know,” he said. “I just did my schedule at the start of the year up until now, and we said we'd kind of reassess and see where we are and see what we need to play going forward.”

Final-Round Leaderboard

Stewart Cink 63-63-69-70—265 (-19)

Harold Varner III 66-68-69-66—269 (-15)

Emiliano Grillo 68-64-69-68—269 (-15)

Maverick McNealy 71-67-66-67—271 (-13)

Corey Conners 67-64-72-68—271 (-13)

Matt Fitzpatrick 71-64-68-68—271 (-13)

——

Shane Lowry 70-65-72-66—273 (-11)

Graeme McDowell 73-71 +2 (MC)

Things to Know

Stewart Cink becomes the fourth player (fifth occasion) age 47 or older to win multiple times in a season on the PGA TOUR since 1960
Cink joins Davis Love III (5) and Hale Irwin (3) with three or more victories at the RBC Heritage
Harold Varner III closes with 5-under 66 to claim career-best finish on the PGA TOUR
Of the RBC Ambassadors in the field, Corey Conners has the best finish at T4
Five players finished in the top 10 in bid to become the sixth international winner at the RBC Heritage since 2012
World No. 1 Dustin Johnson makes 145’ 1” of putts in the final round to close with a 5-under 66

Stewart Cink’s 1-under 70 in the final round was good for a four-stroke victory at 19-under 265; made a total of 32’ 4” of putts in the final round
Four strokes marks the largest margin of victory on TOUR since Matt Jones won 2021 The Honda Classic by five
Claims eighth career PGA TOUR win in his 610th official PGA TOUR start at the age of 47 years, 10 months, 28 days
With the win, earns 500 FedExCup points and moves to No. 3 in the standings; projected to move from No. 115 to inside the top 45 in the Official World Golf Ranking
Wins 21 years, 2 days after his 2000 RBC Heritage title and 16 years, 11 months, 30 days after winning in 2004
Becomes the third player with three or more victories at the RBC Heritage (Davis Love III/5, Hale Irwin/3)
Becomes the second-oldest winner of the RBC Heritage (Hale Irwin/1994/48-10-14)
Becomes the fourth player (fifth instance) age 47 or older to win multiple times in a season on TOUR since 1960, joining Sam Snead, Julius Boros and Kenny Perry (twice; most recently in 2009)
Becomes the seventh player to go 21 years or longer between his first and most recent victory at the same event on TOUR (1st RBC Heritage victory was on April 16th, 2000)
Becomes the 10th different player to win on TOUR after making 600+ starts in official events (Mark Calcavecchia achieved the feat twice)
Joins Hale Irwin (621 starts) as players to win the RBC Heritage after making 600+ starts in official events
Set the lowest 36- and 54-hole score at the RBC Heritage of 126 and 195, respectively
Set his best opening 36-hole score on TOUR on the strength of back-to-back 8-under 63s and equalled his best opening 54-hole score
Converts a 54-hole lead/co-lead on TOUR for the third time in 13 attempts (2004 WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational, 2008 Travelers Championship, 2021 RBC Heritage)
Becomes the fourth 54-hole leader/co-leader to win the RBC Heritage since 2010, joining Webb Simpson/2020, Carl Pettersson/2012 and Jim Furyk/2010
Only other occasion to hold a 54-hole lead at the RBC Heritage resulted in a T10 finish in 2003
Becomes the 13th 54-hole leader/co-leader to win in 2020-21 (most recent: Hideki Matsuyama/Masters Tournament)
Joins Bryson DeChambeau as multiple winners on TOUR this season (2020 Fortinet Championship)
Second occasion to win more than once in a TOUR season (2004: RBC Heritage, WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational)

Additional Player Notes

Harold Varner III (T2/-15) closes with a 5-under 66 to claim his career-best finish on TOUR; previously T3/2019 THE NORTHERN TRUST, comes off three straight missed cuts at the RBC Heritage
Emiliano Grillo’s T2 finish at 15-under 269 comes in his fourth start at the RBC Heritage and supplants his previous-best finish of T16 in 2018; was in search of his second career PGA TOUR win and first since the 2015 Fortinet Championship in Napa, California
A week after his T8 finish at the Masters Tournament, Canada’s Corey Conners finished T4 at 13-under 271
En route to a 4-under 67, Maverick McNealy (T4/-13) birdied his first three holes of the day for the second straight round; in only previous RBC Heritage start, finished T58 in 2020
At 24 years old, Collin Morikawa (T7/-12) posted a final-round 1-over 72 in his bid to become the first player to claim five TOUR victories before the age of 25 since Justin Thomas
First-round leader Cameron Smith (T9/-11) bookended his week with bogey-free rounds (R1/62, R4/66)

In his bid to join Payne Stewart (1989-90), Davis Love III (1991-92) and Boo Weekley (2007-08) as back-to-back winners at the RBC Heritage, defending champion Webb Simpson finished T9
Making his RBC Heritage debut, Will Zalatoris (T42/-5) closed with a 2-over 73 in his bid to become the first player to win the RBC Heritage in his debut appearance since Satoshi Kodaira (2018)
Denny McCarthy (T13/-10) aced the par-3 seventh hole en route to a 4-under 67; previous ace on TOUR came at the 2021 PLAYERS Championship (No. 3/R2)
World No. 1 and RBC Ambassador Dustin Johnson (T13/-10) made 145’ 1” of putts to close with a 5-under 66