Bring the kid into the sweet shop and just watch. A little like Shane Lowry here, in the thick of all the shenanigans on the first tee, a cheesehead - the trademark attire of the Green Bay Packers - atop his head, and a cheesy grin spread across his face, as he firstly signed caps and then flung them into the predominantly home U-S-A crowd in something of an early charm offensive.
All part of the fun and games in truth of the run-up to this 43rd edition of the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits and Lowry, a rookie at 34, very much at home; and, when the merchandise was dispatched to those Packer fans in the horse-shoe grandstand around the first tee, the players - Lowry, Jon Rahm, Sergio Garcia and Tyrell Hatton - threw their golf balls into the air and watched as they landed to see who would pair with who.
Rahm with Lowry. Hatton with Garcia.
And, with the wind blowing a hooley off the murky waters of Lake Michigan, the quartet set off for a practice round which entailed mostly work around the greens, pitching and putting, with the match itself a byproduct to provide a little edge.
In Garcia’s case, it didn’t start well as his drive flew into the wilderness down the right. “No practice balls,” came the giddy roar from the stands as the Spaniard reloaded, his second drive immune to distraction as this time it was long and true and safely on the short grass.
There’ll be no mulligans come the real deal and, for Lowry, these past few days of practice and life in the team bubble have only served to underscore why he rated making Europe’s team as one of the finest achievements of his professional career.
His Claret Jug win in 2019 stands out as his career highlight. The Ryder Cup is different, because it is about being part of a team. There’s no “I” in “Team” and Lowry gets it.
As he put it, “obviously you want to win Majors and you want to compete at the highest level and golf for the most part is an individual sport. But as a European player, as an Irish player growing up, you’ve watched Ryder Cups and obviously Christy Junior, Philip Walton, Eamonn Darcy, Rory, G-Mac, Paddy, Darren, all the great Irish players that have played the game. For me, it was something that I really wanted to do and I felt like I had to do, if I want to be up there with those guys when you’re talking about really good or great Irish golfers.”
Lowry added: “anybody that’s known me, my friends and family, my team, anybody that’s been involved with me over the last 10 years knows how much I really wanted to be here and it’s everything I expected and more.”
And, especially in his case as a noted wind player, the conditions look made for him. “I’m pretty happy with the golf course and that cold wind. It feels very much like a summer’s day in Ireland when you’re out there. It’s quite difficult to play in these conditions because you need to get your head around hitting a 6-iron 150 yards as opposed to normally most guys hit their 6-rion over 200 yards. It’s just things like I feel might help me this week are conditions and stuff like that.”
He’s very much here, very much part of the story. Graeme McDowell, one of Europe’s vice-captains, has been one of those voices of experience acting as a wise sage. “Soak it all in,” advised McDowell, of the whole experience, of bonding with players and being involved of a team room with players who’ve been world number ones and other Major champions and Ryder Cup stalwarts.
Not that Lowry is one for simply sitting in the corner. He’s a big personality, a big character with a big presence of his own. “I do believe I’ll have a big part to play in this team this week and I do believe I can bring a lot when it comes to it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday when push comes to shove in this tournament. I just have to be myself, I think that’ll be good enough. I’ll just go out there and be myself and hopefully pick up some points and, like I say, hopefully win that trophy on Sunday.”
Harrington, too, has seen firsthand Lowry’s input in the team room and isn’t at all surprised. “He’s got a great personality in there and really mixes well and helps others out. Golf wise, he’s a big time player. He delivers on the big stage. He’s good under that sort of pressure, he has that belief. He’s ideally suited for this sort of format, match play, golf course, but really for the occasions and he’s definitely embracing it for sure,” said the captain.
