Shane Lowry couldn’t bring himself to celebrate close friend Rory McIlroy’s Masters triumph after enduring a torrid Sunday.In 2025, the Irishman turned up at McIlroy’s house with a case of wine to toast him completing a career Grand Slam at Augusta.McIlroy and Lowry are close friends on the circuitGettyBut a year later he was gutted after shooting 80 on Sunday to tumble from fourth to 30th on The Masters leaderboard.Lowry is chasing a first individual title since 2022 and shot a one-under 70 in the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town top leave him seven shots behind leader Ludvig Aberg.After Thursday’s round, he opened up about his Masters heartbreak.“I woke up this morning, and I felt like Thursday came around pretty quickly this week,” Lowry told Golf Channel. “It’s been a tough few days.“You know, I felt like I played a lot of good golf last week and got really nothing out of it.“It’s always hard to do that when you prepare so much for a tournament like that and perform as good as I did for a few days.“But I try to take as many positives as I can. And today, I feel like it was always gonna be a tough enough round to get my kind of mojo back, and I felt like I played nice today.”Lowry made sure to send McIlroy a message to explain why he couldn’t see him.“Obviously, you know the stories from last year. I called over to his house with a case of wine and all that,” he explained.“I texted him on Sunday night, and I said, ‘Honestly, I’m so happy for you, but I don’t have it in me tonight to go over and celebrate’.Lowry was gutted after firing himself out of contentionGettyHe is looking to make amends before he catches up with McIlroyGetty“I was feeling a bit down and dejected a little bit, so I just stayed at home with my crew, but I’ll see him in a couple of weeks in Florida.”Lowry has seen plenty of chances to end his drought hit by mistakes, but is still grinding and will face off with McIlroy in the Cadillac Championship at Trump Doral in two weeks.“This game has given me a lot of punches in the gut this year,” he said. “It’s testing me a little bit, but, you know, I’m not going to stop working hard.“I’m not going to give up, and I’m going to give my best for as long as I may be playing this game.”Rory McIlroy takes a breakMcIlroy is skipping the Heritage, despite it being one of nine ‘signature events’ on the PGA Tour this season.It will give him a chance to soak in his victory — and avoid a course he is not a fan of.Only Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo had defended the Green Jacket before this yearGettyAfter finishing T41 at Harbour Town in 2020, McIlroy confirmed he may look to miss the event in future.He said: “Once I got here and I played the golf course, I sort of remembered why I haven’t been here for a while. It’s tough.“It’s a lovely place. There’s other courses on Tour that probably fit my game a little bit better and obviously the week after the Masters is always a tough one.“Guys like to come here and decompress, but my idea of decompression is not seeing golf clubs for a week.”In 2023, he was fined $3 million for skipping the tournament as it was the second signature event he missed that season.Stay up to date with the latest from golf across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.