“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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“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.
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.”
