There were no fishermen’s tales of the one that got away or anything like that from Shane Lowry, even if – for a long time – it had seemed his name would be engraved on to the old Claret Jug for a second time until a horrible nine holes of Saturday’s third round of this 152nd Open at Royal Troon turned dreams into nightmares.
That he reset, refocused and reapplied himself to the task at hand for the final round says all you need to know about Lowry’s character.
Visibly battered and bruised after Saturday’s 77, Lowry returned like his own self for the finale of this great championship and fought tooth and nail, showcased his shot-making and creativity, and sank some outrageous putts too. And in signing for a final round 68 for a total of four-under-par 280, he claimed solo sixth place. More than anyone, he knew it could have been even better.
The scene of the crime, so to speak, on Saturday had been the Postage Stamp, a wee slip of a golf hole, where the Coffin bunker inflicted a death knell of sorts. So, what did he do? He returned there on the final day and rolled in a birdie putt that had the crowds gathered on the sandhills roaring their approval and the player punching his fist towards the heavens. Take that, if you will. A man reborn.
How did Lowry recover from a near wreck to a person of strength from one day to the other? Credit the man himself; and credit the team around him. His coach, Neil Manchip, sat him down for the sort of chin wag that had no time limit. And, at one point, Pádraig Harrington – who’d hung around the players’ lounge – joined in the round-table recalibration.
Even his young daughter Iris, in her own way, lifted the spirits on Lowry’s return to the rental house. “She’s at an age now where she understands, and she knew I was sad. She came over to me and said, ‘you’ve still got a chance to win’. Obviously, Wendy had been saying that to her before I came in and that puts a smile on your face.”
The coach-to-player talk was a reminder of a similar setback at the US Open in Oakmont in 2016 when Lowry was seemingly on course for the title only for Dustin Johnson to steal in.
Of that recall, Lowry said: “Neil just asked me to do one thing today. After Oakmont, I felt like I didn’t fight hard enough, and he said to me, ‘you regretted that, you’re still regretting that’, and he said, ‘do me one thing, just fight for every shot today’, and that’s what I did. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough, but so be it.”
Lowry’s real chances of winning effectively disappeared in that brutal mix of wind and rain on Saturday which saw his 36-holes lead strewn away on the wind-lashed links. And, yet, a tremendous run of birdie-birdie-par-birdie-birdie in a five-hole stretch from the fourth, to turn in 33, of his final round saw him move – however briefly – within one shot of the lead.
But the birdies dried up on the homeward run (a long-range effort on the 17th his sole reward) as, behind him, Xander Schauffele, just as he had done at the US PGA in Louisville, took the championship by the scruff of the neck.
The misery of Saturday evening, however, was replaced by a buoyancy in Lowry’s demeanour. No Major title, even if he’d hoped of heading to Royal Portrush next year as defending Open champion, but a second top-six finish in a Major this year and more FedEx Cup points (up to 10th in the standings) that will lead him onwards to the PGA Tour’s finale in Atlanta. And, before that of course, the Olympics in Paris.
“I’m playing good golf, and I’d love to win a medal for Ireland. Obviously I’d want it to be gold, but I’d probably take either three,” said Lowry.
But, back to The Open.
Glass half-full, or glass half-empty? One that got away?
“How could you not look back on it positively, a chance to win The Open? Obviously the critics and whatnot will say that I probably should have won from where I was [going into Saturday], but it’s not easy out there. It’s not easy to win tournaments like this.
“I did everything I could. Unfortunately, I came up short. Hopefully over the next five to 10 years I give myself another few chances in tournaments like this and get one more. Like I said at the start of the week, all I want is one more,” said Lowry, the glass very much half-full.
