FAR be it from me to take issue with Padraig Harrington, one of the best intentioned people I know, but I am fully in favour of Shane Lowry’s decision to turn professional right away rather than wait until after the Walker Cup next September.
There are literally tens of thousands of euro to be won between now and then and with all due respect to such events as the East of Ireland and the St Andrews Trophy, they are in the ha'penny place compared to the tournaments now looming on the European Tour.
Call it striking when the iron is hot if you like but the pros outweighed the cons where Shane himself, his parents Brendan and Bridgie, girl friend Deirdre Molloy, coach Neil Manchip and his extended family and advisers were concerned. Nor did it come as any surprise when Shane decided to join up with Conor Ridge’s Dublin-based Horizon Sports Management rather than look across-channel to Chubby Chandler’s ISM or IMG.
Ridge is a young, vibrant, hungry operator who has been slowly but surely building a powerful network of players. You can only imagine Chubby’s face when the Dubliner scooped one of his prize possessions, Graeme McDowell, a little over twelve months ago! European Open holder Ross Fisher is another member of the team as are Portuguese Open champion Michael Hoey and a whole host of other budding Irish pros. It will be Conor’s task now to arrange the kind of contracts that will enable Shane to concentrate purely on playing golf without the need to worry about any financial concerns
It could be argued, of course, that the money available to Lowry might not be as great as would have been the case in the Celtic Tiger years. And I wonder if I’m reading too much into the fact that he sported a Titleist cap and a Kartel sweater through most days of the Irish Open suggesting that he may already be involved with two of the most respected companies in the game.
Again a little bit of thinking out loud … perhaps the mobile phone company 3 would be interested in getting on board. After all, without Shane’s involvement at or near the top of the leader board throughout Sunday’s final round, there would have been little or no public interest given that otherwise it was the Swede Johan Edfors and England’s Robert Rock who led the way down the stretch. How many would have braved the elements to watch them fight it out in the fierce rain showers that pounded down on the Co Louth links?
There must have been 20,000 lining both sides of the fairways over the closing holes and again in the play-off and they helped to create an atmosphere that was music to the ears of 3 CEO Robert Finnegan and his team. Now RTE have revealed that almost 50% of their audience on Sunday afternoon watched the golf and that doesn’t take into account those who preferred the Sky Sports coverage.
All told, then, Shane shouldn’t do too badly and if he maintains the form he displayed over those four memorable days at Baltray, the world could very well be his oyster.
