US Open: Memories of the one that got away fire Shane Lowry at Oakmont
'I'll do that again,' came the words from
Shane Lowry
as he departed the 18th green here at Oakmont Country Club, his work – at least on the course where he'd accompanied
Rory McIlroy
in navigating the back nine holes – done before it was even time to look at a breakfast menu.
The early bird and all that, a 6.45am start in front of a handful of people which grew as the golfers and their entourage got reacquainted with the holes where championships are won and lost; a reminder, too, to Lowry of the treeless stretch where the trophy had slipped away back in 2016 as Dustin Johnson's grip grew ever stronger.
That was then, this is now. In ways, that loss only served to strengthen him. Mistakes are only mistakes if you don't learn from them, as they say. Lowry, who of course captured his breakthrough Major title in The Open at Royal Portrush three years later, knows this.
'I had an unbelievable chance win the US Open that year. But if I didn't experience that, would have done what I did in Portrush in 2019? I wouldn't give that up for anything. You live and you learn. I think I learned a lot from that day, and I think it stood to me over the last nine years.
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Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry to play together for first two rounds of US Open
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'Obviously I would love to have a US Open along beside my Claret Jug and, you never know, this could be the week that I do,' said Lowry, standing on the veranda outside the club professional shop with the sounds of young fans looking for autographs and spare golf balls playing out in the background like a song on repeat.
Such sounds are part of Lowry's world these days, heading into Majors with expectations of his own, and others. He was due to pay a reconnaissance visit to Oakmont the Monday after the Memorial but opted out. The scare stories he subsequently heard from players, among them McIlroy, of the rough and the speed of the greens, made him glad he took a rest day instead. 'I was happy that I didn't come.'
Things aren't quite as scary now, as heavy rain has taken some of the sting away and the rough has been clipped an inch or two. For Lowry, who'd led by four strokes heading into the final round in 2016, only to ultimately settle for a share of second some four shots behind Johnson, Oakmont holds no fears, but is a course to be respected, to be navigated with care ... and with strategic course management and, of course, shot-making and putting.
Lowry has been played consistently well all season, currently 11th on the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup standings, and with two runners-up finishes, but without that prized win to add to an already impressive career CV that numbers that Major in Portrush along with WGCs, Rolex Series and flagship events.
Shane Lowry of Ireland plays a shot from the bunker on the 11th hole during a practice round ay Oakmont Country Club. Photograph:Of his form, Lowry admitted: '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.
'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. But there will be some Sunday soon, hopefully, where I'm walking off that 18th green, pretty happy and pretty proud of myself. Hopefully it'll be this week.'
He added: 'It's frustrating. It's hard. I said it to Wendy [after the Canadian Open], you come off the golf course again on Sunday. And she texts me and said, 'How do you feel?' And I said, 'To be honest, I just feel like it's like this every Sunday evening', just pure disappointment.
'And 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, you know, these Sundays have become quite difficult, but that comes from good golf, expectation, the want to succeed, and not being happy with, second best.
'Some people would say 'you're having a great year', and I am, there's no doubt about that, I'm playing great golf this year, but there's one thing missing. I don't want to win every tournament, just want to win one or two.'
Lowry has never been one to hide his feelings when playing. His facial expressions, his language, tell the tale. It is who he is.
'I'm just a competitive person. I don't think it gets in my way at all any more, right? I'd be honest, it probably did back the past, but certainly I don't think it gets in my way any more. I'm well able to get over shots now; yes, it might look like, if you're watching on TV, it might look like what it is, but that's literally to show you for maybe 10 seconds after you hit your shot, you've got plenty of time before the next shot.
'I'm hard on myself because I want it so much because, like I say, I put so much into it, and I know what [winning] tastes like. You just want it again, but, you know, that's the way I've been my whole career. I've been out here quite a long time now. I don't think I'm changing anytime soon.'
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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
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The Irish Sun
2 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Three killer holes at Oakmont including one that cost Tiger Woods a US Open as Rory McIlroy and Co face savage test
WELCOME to the torture chamber hosting the world's top stars for the next four days, as the US Open comes to Oakmont for a record tenth time. Some holes are as notorious as the players are famous, with hot favourite Advertisement 11 English ace Justin Rose gets down to business in practice Credit: Alamy 11 Scottie Scheffler is the favourite after three wins in four tournaments Credit: Alamy 11 Bryson DeChambeau asked for patience as he signed autographs Credit: Reuters 11 It's three and far from easy for players at Oakmont this week Back in 2007 legend However, reigning champion And world no.2 But here's a look at three of the toughest holes any golfer could face - plus the verdict of players on the ominous Oakmont course. Advertisement Hole 3 (par 4 - 462 yards) THIS difficult par-four provides the first sight of the massive Church Pews bunker down the left-hand side of the fairway. And if you steer too far wide of it, there is a row of deep bunkers down the right waiting to gobble up balls. Rated as one of the toughest holes on the course — just ask Tiger Woods. He made his only double-bogey here in 2007 and ended up finishing one shot behind eventual winner 11 DeChambeau hailed his US Open glory at Pinehurst last year Credit: AP Advertisement 11 Tiger Woods famously found trouble at Oakmont in 2007 Credit: Getty BEST ONLINE CASINOS - TOP SITES IN THE UK Most read in Golf Hole 4 (par 5 - 611 yards) ONE of only two par-fives and considered a must-birdie hole as it is shorter than the 12th — which can play anything from 632 to 684 yards. Church Pews bunker is in play down the left. Going for the green in two means taking on a long, blind shot. DeChambeau and Rose's response to how club golfers would cope at Oakmont US Open course Hole 8 (par 3 - 289 yards) THIS is where The Beast — as Oakmont is known — really shows its teeth. Advertisement It usually plays into the wind, so most will have to reach for the driver. Johnny Miller made his only bogey when he shot a course-record 63 on his way to the 1973 US Open here. He said it felt like a par! Scheffler's "hardest ever" verdict on the course is more than matched by the assessment of fellow superstar players. Double UPSGA champ Justin Thomas says 'you can look stupid pretty fast' at the US Open venue, and reckons it will 'psyche a lot of guys out before they hit a shot'. Advertisement But another double Major winner, 11 DeChambeau watches his practice putt on the 14th green Credit: Getty 11 Scheffler putts on the same hole on the tournament eve Credit: Shutterstock Editorial But is all the talk about this 7,531 yards par 70 being the toughest course on the planet justified? In the words of Advertisement Johnson finished four under par nine years ago, on a course playing much easier than usual, because so much rain fell it was nicknamed 'Soakmont'. 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He said: 'Being perfectly honest, and very selfish, I hope it psyches a lot of players out. This course requires tons of patience and discipline, and not everyone can get a handle on that. 'Above all else, Oakmont tests the mental aspect of your game. But with tight fairways, deep rough, difficult bunkers and lightning fast greens it also tests you to the limit technically too. 'If you just get lazy - like on any drive, any wedge shot, any chip, any putt - you can look stupid pretty fast. Advertisement Read more on the Irish Sun 'But I understand this place is hard. I don't need to read articles, or I don't need to hear horror stories. I've played it. I know it's difficult." So sit back and enjoy the ride. It is going to be a bumpy one. 11 Collin Morikawa took a snap of Gary Woodland's club Credit: Reuters 11 Will Chandler spent time on the driving range Credit: Alamy Advertisement
The 42
2 hours ago
- The 42
US Open: Scheffler the man to beat, Lowry better primed than distracted McIlroy
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Rory McIlroy played a practice round last Monday week and birdied the final two holes to card an 81. While the course has been deluged by rain in the weeks leading up to the tournament, the forecast for the opening days of action is more agreeable, although the weekend face the risk of disruption from thunderstorms. Without this rain, says McIlroy, the course would have been 'impossible.' There are only two Irish golfers in the field, as all of Seamus Power, Graeme McDowell, Tom McKibbin and Padraig Harrington failed to make it through qualifying. Organisers have handily paired them together, and so McIlroy and Shane Lowry will play alongside each other and Justin Rose, teeing off early on Thursday and among the late wave on Friday. McIlroy playing alongside Rose evokes easily-accessed memories of the Masters, and trust McIlroy to take the aftermath as interesting as it could possibly have been. He spoke from Augusta in April of feeling freed from the burden of his long major drought; McIlroy was, in his own words, now playing with house money. Er, not so. He barely made the cut at a bizarrely surly PGA Championship, at which he swerved media interviews amid annoyance at the leaking of the fact he had to change his non-conforming driver, and then missed the cut by a mile at last week's Canadian Open with what was, in strokes gained terms, the second-worst round of his career. McIlroy missed the cut the last time this tournament was held at Oakmont, which started a three-year run of missed cuts at the US Open. His reaction to this run is one of the more underrated aspects of his career, and he has been freakishly consistent at the tournament since. He has been in the top-10 in each of the last six years, finishing as runner-up in each of the last two editions. Advertisement Maintaining that consistency this week rests on him finding form off the tee. His driving accuracy across each of his last three events has been abysmal, and a failure to find fairways at Oakmont will mean an early end to his challenge. Having tried a new driver in Canada, McIlroy has switched up his equipment once again this week. 'I feel a little better with the driver over the weekend at home and even today playing a practice round, so hopefully I can hit a few more fairways than I have been hitting and give myself some opportunities', said McIlroy at his Tuesday afternoon press conference. A bigger question is the inner drive. McIlroy admitted ahead of the Canadian Open he had been finding it hard to have the same motivation to grind on the range now that he's achieved all he had set out to do. Speaking to the press this week, McIlroy didn't give the impression of a man who has re-fixed a maniacal focus on golf. 'I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can't relax this week', before then talking of how one of his goals this year was to take up more hobbies and see more of the world, and so he's joined caddie Harry Diamond and manager Niall O'Connor for their on-the-road tennis matches. His playing partner, by contrast, arrives in much more consistent form, albeit appearing increasingly tortured by his inability to get over the line on Sunday. Lowry had a galling close shave at the Truist Championship the week before the PGA Championship, at which he missed the cut on one of his least favourite courses on Earth. He made a stunning Sunday start in Canada last week – five-under through his first four holes – only to cool off too early to catch the later starters. Lowry is less daunted than most by Oakmont, where in 2016 he took a four-shot lead into the final day only to shoot a round of six-over 76 to finish in a tie for second, three shots off winner Dustin Johnson. Lowry is a much better player now, though, and this is a course which will reward his accuracy off the tee – where he ranks among the top-30 on the PGA Tour – along with the quality of his iron play and his hands around the green, where greenside rough will reward only the very best. His contention will rest, though, on how he performs on the greens: he has shown an ability to catch fire with his putter, but these sprawling, sloping greens are redolent of those at Augusta National, on which Lowry has occasionally struggled. That said, Lowry arrives in a better position to contend than McIlroy. Their biggest issue for all may not be the brute of the course, but Scottie Scheffler. Having made a slow(ish) start to the season after hand surgery in the off-season, Scheffler is once again the dominant man in the sport: he has won on three of his last four starts and arrives exuding that air of apparent invincibility. Given Scheffler's awesome form, the brutality of the Oakmont test may ultimately be a favour to everybody else in the field. Scheffler has never won this championship, though victory this week will see him rocking up to Portrush next month seeking to complete the career Grand Slam. Scottie Scheffler: 2025 PGA Championship winner. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Who can stop him? Jon Rahm finally returned to relevance at a major championship with his Sunday charge at Quail Hollow, where his finishing score did not reflect the pressure he exerted on Scheffler. He has the muscle to deal with the Oakmont rough, along with the form to compete. Bryson DeChambeau has meanwhile 3D-printed a new set of irons in the hope he can successfully defend his title this week: at the Masters and Quail Hollow, he contended despite his ball-striking, rather than because of it. Oakmont, though, is going to be too tough to hide any aspect of your game. DeChambeau is now undoubtedly the most popular player in the game, thanks mainly to his YouTube videos, which he says has given him a new lease of life on the course. 'I view my legacy as not just winning golf tournaments', DeChambeau told the press on Tuesday. 'I view it as how much good can I do for the game outside of playing professionally. That's a metric that I hold myself up to. 'The start is YouTube, but there is so much more that's coming down the line, and that's also what gets me up every day, as well.' Elsewhere within that press conference he began some megaphone negotiations with LIV over a contract renewal – 'They see the value in me. I see the value in what they can provide' – explained if he hadn't been a golfer he would be working on how AI will be integrated into biomechanics and hailed his own business sense with the deathless line that his Crushers LIV team have been 'EBIDTA positive for the past two years.' (LIV golf is hardly leaning into the traditional partisanship of other team sports. EBIDTA positive. . . you'll never sing that.') DeChambeau will be the most popular man on the golf course, though Scheffler is, as ever, the man to beat. The greater the test, the more likely the best player is to emerge from the field. And the best player by a street is Scottie Scheffler. Tips Gavin Cooney A winner not named Scottie Scheffler: Jon Rahm (9/1) A solid, make-your-money-back e/w bet: Harris English (55/1) A wild outsider who might make you a fortune: Aaron Rai (75/1) Fintan O'Toole A winner not named Scottie Scheffler: Xander Schuaffele (18/1) A solid, make-your-money-back e/w bet: Harris English (55/1) A wild outsider who might make you a fortune: Rasmus Hojgaard (150/1)
