Lowry to control his emotions as he looks to replicate family GAA heroics

Rónán MacNamara in Rome

Before Shane Lowry ever picked up a golf club his dream was to emulate his father Brendan and uncles, Mick and Sean and win an All-Ireland Football title for Offaly.

The Lowry family is etched in the folklore of the faithful county after Offaly’s dramatic win over Kerry in the 1982 Senior All-Ireland final which stopped the Kingdom’s five-in-a-row bid in its tracks.

While a career in the green, white and gold never materialised for Shane, he has emerged as the star turn in the sporting family winning the 2019 Open Championship, 2009 Irish Open, a World Golf Championship and two Rolex Series events. But he would dearly love to taste the team success his family did in the 80s by helping Europe reclaim the Ryder Cup this weekend in Marco Simone, Rome.

“Look, obviously team sports played a big part in my whole life growing up, and I think it’s where I get my competitiveness from is my dad and his brothers, my uncles,” explained Lowry who admitted he has already cried this week.

“Growing up in that environment was pretty cool, and I think a lot of it is what has got me to where I am today.”

Lowry was one of few highlights for Team Europe two years ago as Pádraig Harrington’s charges fell to a record-breaking defeat in Whistling Straits. He was emotional then and he has already been overcome with emotion this week before a competitive ball has been struck in anger, but he insists he will use the hurt of Chicago as motivation to earn his first Ryder Cup victory.

“It’s an emotional week, and even some of the stuff that’s happened already this week would get you quite emotional.

“I think being a part of something that is bigger than you or anything else is pretty cool, and I think Whistling Straits was hard to take. But it was quite motivating for me coming away from that, and it’s quite motivating for me this week.

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to going out there and hopefully earning some points for Europe, and hopefully we can all do a great job at trying to win the trophy back.”

No longer a rookie, Lowry will be making his second European appearance and first on home soil. It’s also the first time he will play in front of any European fans after Covid restrictions prevented away support from travelling two years ago.

The 36-year-old’s passionate celebrations injected life into an abject European side last time out and he admitted he felt he needed to let some emotion out on the golf course to fill the void in the absence of away fans.

Lowry’s wildcard selection by Luke Donald drew criticism from some corners of the golfing landscape but he possesses an edge and an ability to bring the right amount of needle for Europe this week – although he feels he may have to channel his emotions and not get carried away with the boisterous home roars that will echo around Marco Simone.

“Obviously it feels a lot different because I’ve been here before. Been in the environment and all that. But also this is my first home Ryder Cup.

“There was obviously a few people out there today. Wasn’t as big as obviously it’s going to be maybe Thursday and Friday. Yeah, it’s going to be a lot different. It’s going to be amazing.

“But there’s going to be a few challenges that I might have to fight with myself over. You have to control your emotions out there. You don’t want to let your emotions get the better of you.

“I think at Whistling Straits, emotion, you kind of needed that to get you going because there was no fans to cheer you on. We’ll see how this week goes, but that’s kind of in my head what I’m thinking about this week so far.”

Lowry played a practice round on Tuesday alongside close friend Rory McIlroy with Tommy Fleetwood and Sepp Straka also joining them – he played with Fleetwood and Straka in Wentworth earlier this month per Donald’s request.

McIlroy and Lowry were beaten 4&3 by Harris English and Tony Finau in the Friday four balls and the latter would relish the chance to atone for that loss.

“Rory and I are good friends, so I think we would love to play together, and we’d love to go out there at some stage. We probably feel like we didn’t do ourselves justice in four-balls at Whistling Straits, and I think we maybe would like the opportunity to go at it again and try and win a point this time.”