Shane Lowry ends a three year drought

Paddy Morgan sits down with 2019 Champion Golfer Of The Year Shane Lowry to chat about a successful season.

Royal Portrush was the venue for The Open in 2019. This was the first time that The Open was held in Northern Ireland for 68 years. Lowry went into the tournament as one of the home favourites due to his upbringing on a links course at Esker Hills. The Offaly man took a four-shot lead into the final round and enjoyed the walk on the 72nd hole as he won by six shots. This was Lowry’s first major and he said “I think my game has improved since Portrush and I do feel like I have what it takes to win another one.”

McIlroy took all the headlines on the final day of The Masters by shooting a final round of 64 to finish second behind winner Scottie Scheffler but Lowry impressed to finish tied third on five under. McIlroy & Padraig Harrington have both won multiple majors and Lowry has plans “Yeah I do think I have what it takes to do it, it’s a very difficult task but hopefully I give myself a few chances and I hopefully get to win one over the next five or six years.”  Winning a major requires all parts of your game in top form especially your mental game as some courses are set up brutal in particular the U.S. Open.

He remarkably had a hole in one at the par 3 16th at Augusta in 2016 and followed that up with another hole in one earlier this year “17th at Sawgrass is an iconic hole.”  Lowry hole in one at par3 17th in Sawgrass was remarkable as 29 balls went into the water on day three of 2022 The Players.”  They are two difficult par 3’s to get aces on.

March and April 2022 was a purple patch for Lowry as he also finished second at the Honda Classic and tied third at RBC Heritage “You have regrets afterwards but I think that you have to take the rough with the smooth.”  He learned from not winning in the early part of 2022 and used it to his advantage “Maybe I wouldn’t of went onto win at Wentworth or do the other stuff that I did this year, if I didn’t lose those tournaments.”  He had a good end to 2022 as he was invited to play in a 20-man field at the Hero World Challenge “I kind of look at the whole year and I’m very happy with my season as a whole.”

The Offaly man fell in love with the Irish Open after winning it as an amateur at Baltray in 2009 “the Irish Open means so much to me.”  It looked like that Lowry was going to miss the halfway cut at 2022 Irish Open until “I probably got more of a buzz out of birding the last four holes to make the cut at the Irish Open.”  It was incredible that he gave the returning crowds plenty of excitement to finish day two.”

He finished tied 12th at the BMW Championship but wasn’t enough to advance to East Lake “It was a big disappointment finishing 31st on the FedEx Cup as it was one of my goals to make it through to the Tour Championship.” The field was extremely strong for the 2022 edition at Wentworth which included both 2022 & 2021 U.S. Open champion’s Matthew Fitzpatrick, Jon Rahm and 2021/2022 FedEx Cup champion McIlroy “I don’t need motivation to get up for a tournament like Wentworth as it is one of the biggest tournaments on the DP World Tour.”  McIlroy left his eagle putt on the lip of the hole to force a play-off and the Offaly man won his first event since Royal Portrush in 2019 “It’s something that doesn’t happen very often, we only played 54 holes but still to do that and beat the players down the stretch was very special.”  Lowry was 17 under for three rounds and putted very well in keeping a bogey off the card for the entire tournament at Wentworth “I’m very proud of and it’s a very hard thing to do especially around a course like Wentworth to make no bogeys as there is a lot of tricky holes.”

Lowry chipped in at both the 9th and 10th on day three of the 150th The Open at St Andrews “A couple of hours each day and a lot of effort over the years.”  In my opinion Lowry has the best short game on the tour “It’s the part of the game that I enjoy the most and I don’t really see it as work.”

The DP World Tour is having a court hearing in February 2023 to see what will happen regarding LIV series players participating at the Ryder Cup in Rome “I don’t really know to be honest and I think our team is shaping up pretty good.”  LIV players Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, Paul Casey, Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson are all coming into the twilight of their career and it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they were not allowed play in Rome “I’m not in a position to answer that because if they make the team grand whatever as long as they are playing good enough golf.”

“My biggest one is to win the Ryder Cup but making Tour Championship would be a big part of my season next year

.” It was a pleasure to catch up with Lowry and hope he can achieve his above goals in 2023.

https://www.buzz.ie/sport/shane-lowry-confident-can-add-28782102