Shane Lowry admits being part of a victorious European Ryder Cup team on away soil in Bethpage Black this September would rank alongside anything he has achieved in golf to date.
After rounding off his return to Royal Portrush with a final round of 66 at the Open Championship, Lowry’s attentions have now turned towards cementing his place on Luke Donald’s team where Europe will be bidding to win the Ryder Cup on US soil for the first time since the Miracle in Medinah, 2012.
“For me now the next two months — obviously the playoffs are huge, but my focus and my work will be getting out of bed every morning to prepare for hopefully going to Bethpage and winning that Ryder Cup.,” said Lowry who is fifth in the Ryder Cup rankings with the top-6 earning automatic places.
“It’s a big thing for us Europeans, and it’s a big thing for me. Major season is over now, so everything turns towards the Ryder Cup.
“Yeah, it would be up there with everything else. I can’t speak for other players, but personally I put it way up there preparing, getting ready, trying to make the team, trying to go there and win. There’s probably not many days go by that I don’t think about it. I think, yeah, it would be up there, and I would love to do something like that.”
Lowry has appeared in two Ryder Cups to date, he was one of the bright sparks four years ago when Pádraig Harrington’s charges suffered a record breaking defeat to a very youthful USA side in Whistling Straits.
The Offaly man got to taste success in Rome two years later but he is fuelled by the hurt of Wisconsin.
“Yeah, it was hard, but you get to experience Rome and how great that was. There’s obviously a lot of talk about Bethpage this year, but I do think as a team and as a — obviously Luke and his — we’ve got a lot of continuity from the last one with his setup, and I feel like he’ll have us best prepared as he can going into it.”
Bethpage Black is situated just outside New York and a feverishly intimidating atmosphere is expected to greet the Europeans when they arrive.
This is something that has been in the back of Lowry’s mind, having experienced an away Ryder Cup with no European fans because of Covid restrictions, but he is backing Donald to leave no stone unturned on how to handle the hostile atmosphere.
“There’s no doubt we’ve talked about it. It’s still ongoing, and you have to figure out ways to deal with certain stuff. It might not be as bad as people say. People say it will be bad, but we’ll see. I think, if you’re prepared for something, you’ll deal with it okay. When something happens and you’re not prepared for it, that’s when it gets hard.
“We’ll be prepared. Luke Donald will prepare his team very well, and we’ll be ready to go.”
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