Shane Lowry admits it’s looking increasingly likely that he’ll remain Stateside this year, unless the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open reappears on the European Tour calendar.
In an alternate universe somewhere, this week should’ve seen The Open Champion join the likes of Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm in Mount Juliet for Ireland’s premier golf event. Instead, live sport is off the agenda for now and the golfing gods are shining down weather upon us that Kilkenny organisers would have only dreamed.
What the European Tour decides to do with its 2020 schedule until the end of the year remains relatively unknown but with coronavirus fears still widespread on the continent, for now Lowry is happy to set up camp and focus on June 11th’s PGA Tour restart.
“I haven’t seen a schedule from the European Tour so I can’t really [comment] but I’ll probably be mostly in America for the rest of the year,” he said speaking to 2FM’s Game On.
“Things are just going to be a bit different. I’m just going to go back to what I’ve done the last few years and that’s kind of living day by day, week by week, and just try to perform the best I can every day.”
“The way it is, especially with the quarantine on both sides, I don’t think it’d be physically possible for me [to go back],’” he added.
“The only tournament I would contemplate going back for was if there was an Irish Open put back on the schedule.”
Another thing that will be different for Lowry will be that Darren Reynolds carries his bag for the first few events with regular caddie Bo Martin on family duty back home.
“Bo’s wife is having a baby in a few weeks so I’ve got a different caddie for the first few weeks and then Bo, I think he’s coming back in late July/August,” Lowry added.
“He’s not been able to travel solely because his wife is having a baby, nothing to with international travel. I’ve got Darren Reynolds, who’s another good Irishman, on the bag.”
Lowry already confirmed to Irish Golf Magazine that he will return to the PGA Tour mid next month to begin a busy spell that will see the Clara swinger play the opening three events in succession in what will be seven of nine up to and including the first week in August.
Following the first three events, the Clara golfer will take a week’s break from competition, that being the week of July 2nd to 5th’s Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit.
The Offaly golfer will return for the July 9th to 12th John Deere Classic and then instead of the excitement and pride in teeing-up in what would be the week of the 149th Open, Lowry will tee-up in the Jack Nicklaus-hosted Memorial at Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio.
It will then be a week off and two ‘big’ events in succession – the July 30th to August 2nd WGC – FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis and the following week’s ‘no spectators’ PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in suburban San Francisco.
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