Shane Lowry insists he took his chance to ‘shut a few people up’ at last week’s Horizon Irish Open after drawing some criticism over his European Ryder Cup wildcard pick.
Lowry was one of Luke Donald’s six captains picks for Marco Simone at the end of the month with two-time DP World Tour winner this season Adrian Meronk desperately unfortunate to miss out for the likes of Nicolai Hojgaard and Ludvig Aberg. However, some corners of the golfing world felt Meronk should have been favoured ahead of Lowry who posted only one top-10 in 2023 prior to finishing third at the K Club.
Former British Masters winner Richard Bland was among those believing that Meronk’s consistent form – including May’s Italian Open victory at the Ryder Cup venue – meant the Pole “deserves a pick over an out-of-form Lowry”.
“I know there was a little bit about that last week and me, and I need to be careful here. Didn’t sit very well with me to be honest. I feel like, yes, my results have not been amazing this year, but I feel if you purely go down to statistics and go down to the 12 best players in Europe, I’m one of them. And I feel like I deserve my place on the team,” Lowry said ahead of his title defence at the BMW PGA Championship in Wentworth.
“I didn’t feel like I had to go out and prove anything to anyone last week. The Irish Open is important to me and a tournament I wanted to play well in. If I shut a few people up, so be it, but I wasn’t trying to do that last week. I wasn’t trying to finish third last week. I was trying to win last week. So last week was disappointing for me.
“This week is the same. I’m trying to win the tournament here this week. I know I deserve to be on that team and I know I’ll be good in Rome in a couple weeks, and I’m very excited for it.”
All twelve players flew to Marco Simone on Monday for a team practice session with many golf balls reported to have been lost. Lowry giggled with pride after revealing he only lost one ball: “I only lost one so I was pretty happy with myself.”
Lowry was one of the bright sparks for Europe two years ago as they suffered a record-breaking defeat to the USA and he says fans in Rome can expect similar passion to what he showed in Whistling Straits.
“I think I’m a good player for a start. I think I’m not going to be afraid of anyone that comes to stand on first tee in two weeks’ time. I think I’ll be good for the rookies. I think I’ll be good for team morale or in the team room. I think, you know, I’ll be passionate. ‘ll show my emotions. I’ll enjoy myself.
“You know, I told the lads yesterday, I think for me, the way I look at it is like, you know, we’re all sitting around last night and I said, look, for me, the way I’m looking at this Ryder Cup is you never know when it’s going to be your last so you want to make the most of it. That’s kind of how I look at it. Going to give it everything I can when it comes to two weeks’ time, and even like I said, preparing over the next sort of 2 1/2 weeks, is exciting.
“I said it last week. My favourite week of the year is the week before the Masters because I’m preparing for something huge. It’s kind of quite stressful and I get quite anxious about it but I am feeling like that’s what next week is going to be like and I’m looking forward to preparing and getting ready for going out there and hopefully winning.”
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