It’s rare that the weekend golfer can relate to a touring professional but Shane Lowry is working through the familiar frustration of being very, very close to producing his best stuff as he waits patiently to break through the winners enclosure.
The stats and Pádraig Harrington’s word suggest that Lowry is playing the best golf of his career but it will mean little if he can’t end a winless streak that dates back to Wentworth in 2022. After struggling to get over his near miss in Dubai and Cognizant Classic collapse, it proved a tricky summer for the Offaly man who missed out on the second FedEx Cup playoff event but he believes it could be a blessing in disguise as the 2009 Irish Open champion arrives in Doonbeg refreshed and relaxed.
“I haven’t played much. I probably wasn’t in the best place after The Open. Then I went to play Memphis, kind of going through the motions there. Had a nice few weeks at home in Florida. Bit of routine. I worked really hard and done some good stuff. I’m feeling refreshed for the rest of of the season. I’m feeling good. I’m pretty happy.
“I’m looking forward to hopefully — you know, this week and next week, two huge weeks on the calendar. I think if you can’t really get excited or up for those, it’s time to look in the mirror.
“There’s just been certain moments this year where it’s just not gone my way where I have probably not been my best mentally or something like that, that I feel like, you know, a bounce here or there it could be different, but ifs and buts in golf, that’s all the way it is. I’m not too disheartened by the whole thing. I feel like there’s still time to rescue a decent year.”
Lowry addressed questions from the media ahead of his Thursday tee-time with Patrick Reed and Jon Rahm and while memories of his 09 victory in Beltway as an amateur still remain he feels he is in the best place he has been mentally for a long time to mount a serious challenge for his first Irish Open win as a professional and at Wentworth next week.
“I left Memphis a few weeks ago, right and I wasn’t in the BMW. And everyone in the BMW is going home sulking, and I went home and I wasn’t too discouraged from the whole thing. I felt like I was getting three weeks off and getting a chance to get to refresh myself and come to The Irish Open and Wentworth and refresh and energize and hopefully give them a good go.
“I feel like the last few years, I come into this part of the season or the latter part of the season kind of going through the motions because I feel like I’m over golfed, whereas I don’t feel like that this year. Who knows. The one thing I do know is that I get up every day and work at it. You go out and give it your best. There will be times where I will feel under pressure. There will be times when I give myself chances to win tournaments. Just get through that and gave over the line.”
The race to qualify for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor got underway at the British Masters. Rory McIlroy is expected to be there while Tom McKibbin has set his sights on a Team Europe debut in twelve months time. But playing a Ryder Cup on home soil in Ireland would be a career highlight for Lowry who admits he will be putting a lot of weight on making Luke Donald’s twelve-man team for a fourth consecutive appearance.
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of my goals over the next 12 months are going to be revolving around one thing and that’s going to be part of a winning Ryder Cup Team at Adare.
“When it got a announced as Adare Monday, the Ryder Cup, in ’27, it’s something that I looked at and it would be very, very special to play a Ryder Cup at home. I know a home one is in Europe but an Irish home Ryder Cup would be very special. I was at the one at The K Club on the Friday, and yeah, gives me goosebumps even just thinking about it.
“So a lot of the reason why can I get out of bed over the next 12 months will be working towards that. I’m looking forward to the challenge of trying to make the team and then trying to win.
“I think the Americans are going to come strong next year. I think they are going to be coming at us trying to, we’ve been pretty good the last couple of years. I think they have got some something to come for next year, and I think I’d love to be part of the team that tries to fend them off.”
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