NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. — After Friday’s pin placements stirred some strong emotions about set-up, Saturday’s course presentation at the PGA Championship seemed to meet the platonic ideal of facilitating fireworks but causing punishment for anything less than right. That doesn’t mean it was universally loved by the field, however. Most notably, Shane Lowry.
The former Open champ has never been shy about his feelings towards courses that don’t meet his standard. Following an even-par 70, Lowry didn’t hold his opinions back to Northern Ireland’s BBC Sport.
“Yeah I think it’s a great golf course, but I think it has been set up pretty poorly,” Lowry said on Saturday. “And I guess that people sitting at home on the couch can say, ‘Well, people are making birdies, some people are shooting good scores.’ That’s always going to happen, they’re the best players in the world.”
'I think it has been set-up pretty poorly' 🗣
Shane Lowry was speaking with BBC Sport NI's Stephen Watson following his third round at the US PGA Championship⛳#BBCGolf #Golf #USPGA pic.twitter.com/1r0z8mXX2W
— BBC SPORT NI (@BBCSPORTNI) May 16, 2026
Lowry said he was happy that Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler weren’t thrilled with Friday’s set-up and that it wasn’t just him. “I feel like when you see the best players in the world struggling from 10 feet, you know that there’s something wrong somewhere,” Lowry explained. “So I think they got it wrong the first two days. It looks like they’ve… it was certainly a little bit easier today, and it looks like that’s kind of maybe a reaction to the first two days, which is not right either you know.”
In Lowry’s estimation, players want a similar course set-up ever day, with the course getting harder as the week progresses. “You look at the field so bunched, maybe that’s the reason for the setup the way it is.” A record 22 players are within four shots of the PGA lead with 18 holes to go.
To be fair, not everyone agreed with Lowry’s assessment. Following a 66 to get back into the mix, Lowry’s mate McIlroy felt the set-up wasn’t manipulated. “Look, when you have a set of greens like this, you can start to frustrate people pretty easily, I think. You heard it in me last night. You heard it in Scottie. I saw some of his comments. Shane. I think there was a lot of guys that were frustrated yesterday coming off the course,” McIlroy said. “Again, it’s frustrating to us, but at the same time, it creates a helluva entering championship. If I wasn’t playing this tournament, I’d love what’s going on this week, but watching and playing are two different things.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
