Shane Lowry hoping for more British Open magic at Royal Portrush
County Antrim – Missing the cut at the past two Majors has not dimmed Shane Lowry's confidence as the Irishman returns to the scene of his greatest triumph this week.
Lowry followed up a T42 at the US Masters with early exits at the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and the US Open at Oakmont.
He won his lone Major at the British Open at Royal Portrush – site of this week's championship – in Northern Ireland in 2019, finishing 15-under to defeat Englishman Tommy Fleetwood by a whopping six strokes.
'I kind of pride myself on not missing cuts, especially in the big events. I feel like I can always get myself there or thereabouts in the big events and I have done over the last number of years,' Lowry said on July 14 at Royal Portrush.
'But I've been consistently quite good this year. I've given myself a couple of chances to win, which I'm very disappointed that I didn't, but we've got a few months left to kind of redeem myself and get a win on the board.'
Lowry, 38, who skipped last week's Scottish Open, is ranked No. 18 in the world and has four top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour this season.
He tied for second at the Truist Championship in May and was second at Pebble Beach in February.
'No matter how well you're playing the season, if you don't have a win beside your name at least once, you don't really class it as being very good,' Lowry said.
'Yeah, but my season has been going – I've got a good FedExCup ranking (17th) at the minute and things have been going all right.'
Lowry said he had 'spent the last six years' trying to figure out why everything came together for him at Royal Portrush in 2019.
'I'd been playing pretty solid, like really good golf the whole year,' he said.
'Then I came to a place that I knew and I loved, and it just all clicked. I was playing some of the best golf of my life.'
A huge mural commemorating Lowry's 2019 victory at Royal Portrush was unveiled a year ago on the side of a house just half a mile from the course.
The modest Lowry, still searching for his second Major title, joked he was pleased the house he is staying in this week was in the opposite direction, so he won't have to drive past it every day.
'When I won here in 2019 it was very special and it was an amazing day for the country and everyone around me, but it didn't change me as a person,' he said.
At the 2024 Open at Royal Troon, Lowry held the lead entering Saturday's round and finished sixth.
Despite the disappointing results at the last two Majors, Lowry said he feels like he is a better golfer now than he was six years ago.
'But it doesn't mean I'm going to go out and win by seven this year instead of six. It's just golf; that's the way it is,' he said.
'I think, as a golfer, you always have to look at it as the glass is always half full. You can't look at it any other way.
'If you look at it any other way, you're going to be in trouble. So I try and look at it that way all the time.' REUTERS, AFP
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