Q. I'm going to start with the big highlight, the hole-in-one. How special was that for you today?
SHANE LOWRY: That's wild, isn't it? Made one a couple of weeks ago in Houston. You don't ever expect to make a hole-in-one. I just couldn't believe it. Obviously, you know, you're out there, and you're in the hunt at the Masters and you're making hole-in-one, it's pretty cool.
The walk down the sixth hole with everyone around 16 and the 6th was very special. I'll remember that for a while. Yeah, it was obviously amazing.
Q. What is it about you and hole-in-ones, signature hole-in-ones?
SHANE LOWRY: Maybe I'm just good (laughing). I don't know. I don't know. Like, sort of my (indiscernible) plays a strength of my game, and yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Q. You've made some iconic holes-in-one. That's got to be the most important. The third round of the Masters when you're in contention.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, you know, it gives you obviously a huge kind of boost. You go from 6-under to 8-under, and then all of a sudden you're only four back. It's getting real now.
I felt like I did a great job of calming myself down afterwards. Myself and Neil have talked about during the week about the only shot that matters is the next one. I hit a great tee shot on seven, and I was very happy and proud of that one, because it's easy to get a bit flustered in areas like that. Your adrenaline is pumping.
So, yeah, I was happy with that, but yeah.
Q. At the start of the day you're obviously optimistic and hopeful, but did you realistically think you might be only a couple back going into Sunday?
SHANE LOWRY: I thought if Rory could shoot a 68 today he might run away with the tournament. The course, they made it a bit more gettable today. I noticed on TV this morning the greens were softer than they were yesterday.
But the thing is, it's not easy to go out and go after it when you're at the top of the leaderboard. Not that it's easy to do it. But when you're down the field and you're just having a go at it, it makes it a little bit easier and you can play a bit more freely. When you are out there in the hunt you need to be a little bit more protective of what you are doing.
Yeah, it obviously wasn't going to be an easy day for Rory to shoot a score, and he has, he's 1-over over playing the last there, but we all know it's all about tomorrow. You know what I mean? Obviously it matters, today, but when we get to tomorrow, that's when, you know, we'll see what everyone is made of.
Q. What club did you use?
SHANE LOWRY: 7-iron. Same club as Houston a couple of weeks ago.
Q. The up-and-down on 15, Shane, seemed like a big one.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, honestly, I thought -- I've said to certain pins that I would take that bunker all day in two, and that's where I was trying to hit. I wasn't trying to hit it on the green. I was trying to hit it in the bunker because that bunker is far easier than the wedge shot from short.
I hit it and looked away like I thought it was the middle of the bunker and couldn't believe when I heard a big of an "ah." I didn't know if it was short or not because it wasn't too big of a sigh from the crowd. Maybe they were happy.
I thought I did a great job of, like, calming myself down and just hitting the next shot. I got that up-and-down, that was huge. That was huge. Then on 16, I holed, what, like a 6-footer for par on 16 as well. So that was really nice the last few holes. I played the last two holes lovely.
Q. Was that a Whoop on you to record your heartbeat?
SHANE LOWRY: It's pretty high, I'd say, yeah. I'm not going to go home and study it. Yeah, I'll use it for my sleep more than anything else, but yeah.
Q. Were you aware that I think you're the first person ever to have two holes --
SHANE LOWRY: My dad just said that to me walking up the 18th. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty cool. All you get is two bits of crystal. You don't get much else (laughing).
Q. A huge amount going on the leaderboard today. Up and down like a yo-yo. Were you monitoring the leaderboard?
SHANE LOWRY: I was, yeah. I saw Scottie was making a run. You know as probably everyone expected. He's going to have a chance tomorrow as well. It's pretty good leaderboard, so it's going to be pretty hard to win this tournament tomorrow, but I'll give it my best.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports