Shane Lowry bids to repeat fairytale Open triumph - but must end unwanted six-year record

Daily Mirror

4 days ago

Shane Lowry knows that if he can just channel a little bit of the ruthlessness and nervousness from his win at The Open in 2019, then he will take some stopping - but he's not won a major nor a tour title, solo, since his victory at Royal Portrush
Frustrated by his inability to convert form into trophies this season, Shane Lowry knows that if he can just channel a little bit of the ruthlessness and nervousness from his win at The Open, then he will take some stopping.
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The occasion, six years ago, would have overwhelmed many. As he stood on Royal Portrush's 18th tee, with the wind in his face and the rain on his cap, Lowry puffed out his cheeks, addressed his golf ball and prepared to take the most important swing of his life. And, on an island that has produced dozens of legendary boxers, perhaps the most important swing anyone has taken in Irish history.
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With a six-shot lead, you'd think there was never a chance he could muck it up but this was the 72nd and final hole of The Open – the stage where in previous years, leaders like Jean van de Velde went bare-foot into a creek out of sheer panic and desperation and Doug Sanders missed a putt from a distance barely further out than a fag end. They both lost.
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Nothing can be guaranteed and the last hole at Royal Portrush is not for the faint-hearted, either, with out of bounds lurking down to the bottom of a dramatic run-off on the left. But this was Lowry, this was 2019 and this was special. He struck his tee shot so sweetly it cut through the wind and danced through the rain to end up in the heart of the fairway. And with that, the jeopardy was gone and the celebrations could begin.
The significance of the week was enough to make the 2019 Open one for the history books, the biggest ever sporting event held in Northern Ireland. Portrush waited 68 years for a second crack at hosting, largely due to the Troubles - and boy was it something to celebrate - but an Irish winner was poetic.
The scenes that greeted Lowry down that 18th fairway, and then towards the green were biblical. It was more Glastonbury than golf – and he was the pied piper leading them to Disneyland. Ireland might unite under one flag for rugby, but the men's national team plays all of their home games in Dublin and the team has long-been Leinster-heavy. It's a one-way relationship. This was on Ulster's patch, tucked up against the Antrim coast.
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Those in the gallery were not south or north, or Catholic or Protestant, they were Irish. Through Lowry – who hails from Offaly - they came together – and through Lowry they united. On the walk to the green, the 'Fields of Athenry' reverberated. They were soaked wet through but no-one cared.
'I could not believe that was happening to me,' he said. 'Twelve months previous I was lying in the car crying to myself after missing another cut. This feels like an out-of-body experience. I can't wait to wake up on Monday morning and find out what it's going to feel like then. It's just going to be incredible.'
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Lowry packed up the van and trekked four hours down to Dublin for a night on the town, with a posse of family, friends, celebrities and anyone else who was up for the craic. He was videoed with the Claret Jug in one hand and a pint in the other, swaying along to another rendition of that famous folk song.
Even his wee granny Emily got in on the fun. 'I haven't had a brandy since 2009 but I had two watching Shane,' she told RTE. 'It's nearly killed me.'
The next day, he went home, to Clara in County Offaly, and did it all again.
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'I was asked by an American journalist just how big the party would be tonight?' Lowry said. 'I felt I had to put him right, 'You mean how big the party would be all week?''
Lowry was not a shock winner but he was hardly among the favourites. Obviously talented, he'd had a few big wins – including the Irish Open as an amateur - and decent major performances. But whether he was cut out to win one of the big four was dubious, especially after he chucked away a four-shot lead on the last day of the US Open in 2016.
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But in 2019, something clicked. Six years on, it remains Lowry's sole major triumph, underlining how hard these things are to win, while he has only won one tour event since, and that came in a team event with Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic.
Still, he has become a much more consistent golfer since and his form is also good. His record in the majors this season – a tied-42nd and two missed cuts – don't suggest it, but Lowry believes he is in the form of his life, he has just been unable to win.
At the Masters in April, he was only three shots behind going into the weekend but a final-round meltdown ended his chances. There have been two runners-up finishes and two further top-10s on the PGA Tour. Sundays, bloody Sundays, as another Irish icon once sang.
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'I think it's the best I've ever been, but I don't feel like I'm getting rewards, to be honest, because every Sunday I come off the golf course I feel like I'm after getting punched in the gut,' he said. 'It's been a very consistent, very good year, but I can't remember the last time I walked off the 18th green on the Sunday afternoon happy with myself, so that's hard to take.
'It's hard to take when you feel like you're putting so much time and effort in and time away from your family and your kids and these Sundays have become quite difficult. But that comes from good golf, expectation, the want to succeed, and not being happy with second best. I am having a great year, but there's one thing missing.'
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Familiarity, then, could help. Like McIlroy's Green Jacket, Lowry has his own permanent reminder of his success. A year ago, the R&A unveiled a new mural in Portrush of him holding the Claret Jug and he stopped by to check it out earlier this month, as part of a pre-Open reccy, before heading to Dublin to play indoor golf with American folk-pop artist Noah Kahan.
He might spend much of his time in the States, but Ireland suits him and that makes him a dangerous proposition this year.
'Royal Portrush will always be the highest point of my career,' he told the Telegraph. 'I'm often asked how I can top 2019, and I have no idea. I won by six, so maybe win by seven?'
He added: 'I don't want to win every tournament, just want to win one or two. But there will be some Sundays soon, hopefully, where I'm walking off that 18th green, pretty happy and pretty proud of myself.'