Shane Lowry arrived at the Travelers Championship with a new face on the bag and an old one back in place. He split with Darren Reynolds before the PGA Tour Signature Event in Connecticut and linked back up with Dermot Byrne for the week.
The move came after Lowry missed the cut at the US Open by two shots at Shinnecock Hills, a result that left the 39-year-old searching for answers as he headed to another big start. He said golf was “just not agreeing with me at the moment” and that he felt there was something missing, but he did not know what it was.
That is what gives the Shane Lowry caddie change its weight. Reynolds had worked with Lowry since he parted ways with Bo Martin in 2023, so the switch was not a routine shuffle. It came at the point where Lowry needed stability most, between a missed cut and the last $20 million Signature Event of the season on the PGA Tour.
Lowry did not frame the split as a dramatic fallout, but he did not offer much clarity either. “No idea really,” he said when asked about it, before adding that he and Byrne would “see what the plan is going forward.”
That uncertainty sits alongside a sharper frustration with his game. Lowry said he was not enjoying the week, that he did not have any fun, and that he felt he had done a lot of things well despite heading home on Friday evening. He added that he felt like he was “beating my head against a brick wall,” a line that suggests the problem is bigger than a few missed putts or a single bad round.
Byrne’s return also carries its own history. He caddied for Lowry during the first decade of his career, long before the Ryder Cup, the PGA Tour and the weight that comes with being an Open champion. Their reunion gives Lowry a familiar voice at a moment when he has said he feels something is missing but cannot identify what it is.
What happens next is already mapped out in part. After the Travelers Championship, Lowry planned to head home to Ireland before going on to the Genesis Scottish Open and then the 154th Open at Royal Birkdale. Whether Byrne stays on beyond Connecticut is still the open question, and for now that is the real story behind the change.
