Rónán MacNamara in Royal Troon
Shane Lowry felt so confident in his game that he had entertained thoughts of returning to next year’s Open at Royal Portrush with the Claret Jug.
Had he done so he would have returned to the site of his 2019 Open triumph as the defending champion and defending course champion, but a damaging Saturday evening ultimately put paid to those hopes.
“Look, honestly all week, the way I was playing, I thought I’m going to be going back to Portrush with the Claret Jug as well. That could be pretty cool. I was very confident with how I was playing this week.”
Next year’s Open will be incredibly special. It’s set to hold the largest ever attendance for an Open Championship while even taking away from Lowry returning as defending course champion, Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke will both be returning home with Clarke mulling over whether Portrush will be his last Open jaunt.
The countdown to next July starts now and Lowry is already eyeing up the return to Portrush.
“I’m sure going back to Portrush will have its challenges next year for me with some demands and people are going to be talking about me a little bit more than they were in 2019. But, yeah, I’ll go back, and I’ll enjoy it.”
Lowry admitted that his Open near miss in Troon this week will take time to get over but when he takes stock he will realise he is in his most consistent run of form with just one missed cut since last September.
The Clara man also has the Olympics to look forward to and three more major championships before Portrush rolls around.
“Who knows between now and then what’s going to happen. We have a lot of good golf to play. Hopefully I’ll be going back, you never know, as an Olympic medalist or a major champion or something. That would be pretty cool.”
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