The gable end of a house on Causeway Street in Portrush delivers a reminder of Shane Lowry’s Open triumph in 2019. The fantastic mural not only depicts Lowry with the Claret Jug in hand, but how Ireland, whether North or South, unites behind its sportspeople.
Lingering memories from six years ago recall Lowry stretching away from the field towards the end of round three. He was in an unassailable position. The subsequent epic, week-long celebrations are another key reference point; the new Open champion showed the sporting world how to party and it fuelled a misconception, a tired cliche of the bearded, drinking Irishman.
“I have always been conscious of that, but I have also always enjoyed myself,” Lowry says. “I work my nuts off. You can’t play at this level without doing that. If I win another one, I’ll celebrate twice as good. It’s so hard out here, so hard to win big tournaments, that when you do, you need to enjoy them.
“Players came to me afterwards ... I remember Martin Kaymer’s caddie telling me: ‘Martin regrets not doing what you did because when he was winning majors, world number one, he took it for granted a little bit.’ You need to enjoy the moments.”
RM Block
The Open’s return to Northern Ireland turns thoughts back towards what Lowry achieved. The outpouring of emotion was due in part to what he encountered before the last round. He led by four with 18 holes to play – the same advantage he had at Oakmont’s 2016 US Open, only to stumble painfully in Pennsylvania.
“It is what you work for and everything you dream of, but it was one of the toughest 24 hours of my life, in sporting terms,” says Lowry. “You don’t sleep. People are definitely tense around you. It is a tough place. The consequences of failure were so huge. If I didn’t win that day, I still wouldn’t be over it. How much it meant, where it was, all that stuff.
“Oakmont helped me, 100 per cent. I went out in the final round there not to lose the tournament. At Portrush, I went out to win. I said to Neil [Manchip, Lowry’s coach] that Sunday morning: ‘If I can make five birdies today, nobody can beat me.’ Even if I made five bogeys as well and shot level, nobody was beating me in that weather. That was the mindset. At Oakmont, I went out to make pars and let it all slip.”
Lowry felt at home on the Dunluce Links, where he was roared on towards victory by a mix of total strangers and those closest to him. “Until I played my tee shot on the 17th on Sunday, I didn’t allow myself to think, ‘This is it.’ I hit that one and realised I could kick it in from there, I had a six-shot lead.
“I was looking out for people. I saw a lot of friends at the top of the 18th grandstand. Turning the dog-leg corner at the last, I could see my daughter ... she was only two-and-a-half at the time and had this bright yellow jacket on. I could see that right behind the flag, in the tunnel at the back of the 18th green. A wave of emotion came over me. I could have cried. I remember my caddie saying to me something like: ‘Man up, you still have a shot to hit.’
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“At the back of the 18th, most of the people who have been hugely influential in my career were there. My parents were there, my coach, Graeme McDowell, Pádraig Harrington. It was incredible.”
Lowry used to regularly watch footage of his Open glory. He does less of that now. “I would give anything to be able to stand there and experience the 18th hole again,” he says. “It all happened so quickly that it really is like a blur. The only way you can place yourself there is by looking at videos. It’s amazing to have all the YouTube videos, for my kids and hopefully grandkids when everyone gets older.”
The one exception was that round three run. While en route to a 63, Lowry played the back nine in 30. Portrush had been battered into submission as he led the field a merry dance. “People talk about being in the zone. Those last four or five holes, that is the one time in my career where I felt that and thought I knew what it was.
“I felt like I was going to birdie every hole. If I had another nine holes to play, I felt like I would birdie all of them as well. That is where I won the tournament.”
Lowry’s victory lap was distorted by the arrival of a pandemic. At the 2020 Players Championship, golf followed the global trend of shutdown. “A lot of people were in far worse situations than me, but I felt a little hard done by where it was all a bit weird going to the biggest events as the Open champion,” Lowry says. “I didn’t get the full experience.
“My game also suffered during Covid. Rory [McIlroy] was the same. We played a lot, played really well in games against each other, then we would come on tour and the lack of crowds and energy affected us. I really hated that.
“I remember going home from Sawgrass and being a little lost for a few weeks. I had spent close to 20 years with a purpose, with something to work towards, then one day it was taken away. I realised how lucky we have it when things got back to normal.”
Lowry has joked that McIlroy’s grand slam triumph takes focus off him for the Portrush return. Yet it is a truism that one so talented should really have more than one major to their name.
“It definitely helps that I have one because if I didn’t by now, it would be doing my head in,” he says. “I have to stress this is not me lacking drive, but if I was to pack it in today I would be pretty happy with what I have. That doesn’t at all mean I don’t want more.” – Guardian
