Stark County PGA Tour player Justin Lower logs career-best finish, prolongs cuts-made streak
Justin Lower keeps grinding, and now it's getting him somewhere.
Lower, Stark County's rooting interest on the PGA Tour, is among a handful of players to have played five events and made all five cuts in 2024.
On Sunday, the former Northwest High School and Malone University golfer who lives in Green logged his first top-three finish on the Tour.
Playing in the Mexican Open on a resort course near the Pacific Ocean, Lower shot 14-under par to tie for third place, trailing only Jake Knapp of the United States (19-under) and Sami Valamaki of Finland (17-under).
On No. 18 Sunday in Nuevo Vallarta, Lower came close to having an eagle putt that could have put him at 16-under. His 247-yard second shot rolled past the flag and into the rough. He chipped to 8 feet and putted to within 9 inches, tapping in for par.
A birdie would have left Lower alone in third place for a $558,900 payout. Tying Stephan Jaeger and C.T. Pan for third dropped his winnings to $429,300, but that's life on Tour.
He wouldn't have finished so high without such moments as a 52-foot birdie putt on a water hole on the second day of the tournament. He birdied No. 14 and No. 15 in his last round to set up the third-place tie.
The 34-year-old Lower's best previous Tour finish was a tie for fourth at the Fortinet Championship in mid-September 2022. This is his third season on Tour after a long battle to get there.
He didn't even play in the 2023 Mexican Open, two months after his wife, Janise, gave birth to their first child.
The 2024 trip to Mexico proved fortuitous, especially after he finished his third-round pairing with Tony Finau. He shot 5-under 66 to Finau's 69 and finished the tournament three shots ahead of Finau, who won the event in 2023 in a duel with Jon Rahm.
Making a cut can be a limited satisfaction.
In the Hawaiian Open in January, for example, Lower made the cut with no room to spare. He then was so-so in the final two rounds and finished in a tie for 74th place at 1-under par, leaving Honolulu with a check for $16,019. Grayson Murray won the tournament at 17-under and walked away with $1.5 million.
In his next three tournaments, Lower tied for 39th ($34,020), tied for 43rd ($28,530), and tied for 53rd ($20,529).
Continuing to make cuts keeps a guy in the hunt for real money.
In four events since the Hawaiian Open, Lower has made all four cuts and earned $512,379. Hawaiian champion Murray has missed three of four cuts and won $35,313.
Lower pushed himself with a busy schedule last year and is at it again. He played tournaments in Hawaii, California (two), Phoenix and Mexico within the last seven weeks. He is back at it this week at a tournament in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, headlined by Rory McIlroy.
Packing the schedule equates to survival, chasing the FedEx Cup points necessary to stay on Tour. Lower is in his third season since earning a Tour card.
He was running on fumes last July when he missed a cut in an event at Tahoe Mountain Country Club in California.
"I probably should have skipped that one, in hindsight," he told The Repository late last year. "I wasn't really listening to my body. I needed some rest."
Lower caught some rest late in the year and finished strong, ending the 2022-23 season at No. 100 in the rankings used to determine Tour eligibility.
The revised PGA Tour format has the current season confined to calendar year 2024. Lower's third place in Mexico vaulted him to No. 57 in the rankings.
Making the cut is a big deal to golfers fighting to establish turf. In the Mexican Open, 65 players made the cut; 67 did not. Tying for third place from that crowd stands as a milestone in Lower's career thus far.
Lower has spoken of bigger goals than just making cuts, including winning reaching The Masters and other major tournaments.
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Justin Lower finishes PGA Tour career-high third in Mexican Open
