Shane Lowry may have been at the centre of a whirlwind of celebrations and media attention since his Open Championship victory at Royal Portrush on Sunday but he is hoping his hard-earned status as Ireland’s newest major champion will not change him.

Shane Lowry said the feeling of winning The Open “hasn’t sunk in yet” as he was welcomed home to County Offaly.

Simon Lewis Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler may not have had the outcomes they wanted

Pádraig Harrington toasted the double victory of Shane Lowry and Royal Portrush as a brilliant moment for Irish sport as the 148th Open Championship was declared a resounding success.

Shane Lowry has woken up this morning as the Open champion.

An Englishman and an Irishman competed in the final pairing of the Open Championship in Northern Ireland. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, but that was how the script for the 148th Open at Royal Portrush played out.

At the end of a thrilling championship, Kevin Markham looks at the winners and losers on the closing day of the Open.

A day of golfing perfection from Shane Lowry took the Irishman to the verge of Open Championship victory at Royal Portrush but the 32-year-old is steeling himself for the most challenging day of his career tomorrow.

Rory McIlroy’s major successes are far from over, says Graeme McDowell, who has backed his friend to rebound from his Royal Portrush disappointment.

Shane Lowry survived alate-round wobble and some high-volume commentary from a giant TV screen to put himself in pole position at the halfway stage of The 148th Open as Rory McIlroy’s late charge to the make the cut came up agonisingly short.

Leave it to Maureen Madill to put into perspective how big a deal hosting the 148th Open Championship is to the membership at Royal Portrush and all of her native land.

So that’s Thursday nearly wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

It was Lowry's best-ever opening round in a major.

Darren Clarke stroked home a birdie at the fifth to lead The Open like he was knocking balls around in his back garden.

Before the deluge came and the sun still shone, spectators at Royal Portrush were being handed their Open branded metal canisters as they came through the entrance gates as the R&A continued their bid to do away with single-use plastic water bottles.

There is something uniquely British about the tennis at Wimbledon. Where else do you still see players playing in “all whites” and on grass courts to wildly enthusiastically patrons, who nostalgically talk as much in the past as the present, while sipping their Pimm’s and eating their strawberries and cream.

This week’s 148th Open at Royal Portrush is officially the most attended Championship staged outside St Andrews with the R&A announcing on Wednesday that there will be a record-breaking crowd of 237,750 for the tournament starting on Thursday.

Pádraig Harrington has predicted that the Open Championship’s return to Irish shores this week is the first step of tournament organisers the R&A taking golf’s oldest major around the world, ideally with Portmarnock as the launchpad.

Nobody could be happier than Pádraig Harrington that Royal Portrush is staging the 148th Open Championship this week but the two-time Claret Jug winner wishes his favourite golf course was not in quite such good nick.

It was business as usual down on Portrush’s beautiful East Strand as the lifeguard looked out from her perch to the handful of dog walkers and paddlers on the beach.

Pádraig Harrington may not be allowed to gamble on golf but the two-time Open champion makes a compelling case for lifting the Claret Jug a third time this Sunday.

Portrush After 68 long years, one still has to commend the R&A’s bravery to entrust Royal Portrush once more with the stewardship of the jewel in their crown — the Open Championship.

Kevin Markham visits Royal Portrush to see how Open Championship preparations are progressing.

Clarke has had life-threatening first-hand experience of The Troubles.

Darren Clarke will have the honour of striking the first ball at The 148th Open on Thursday as major championship golf returns to Royal Portrush for the first time since 1951.

Jamie Donaldson set his sights on an emotional return to Royal Portrush after claiming a share of the clubhouse lead on day one of the ASI Scottish Open.

Robin Dawson picked up the biggest prize in his professional career to date and with it the motivation to make his appearances on the European Tour a lot more regular.

Cormac Sharvin will carry home hopes into the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open final round tomorrow, but it was Robert Rock’s stunning third round of 60 that wowed the sell-out crowds at Lahinch.

Shane Lowry is so superstitious he’d carry a horseshoe in his bag if his caddie would let him.

US golfer Tom Watson will be in Northern Ireland next month for the Open Championship, which he has won on five occasions.

If you are a golfer and you don’t know Tom Coyne, then you’ve been living under a rock.

Before Darren Clarke tapped in his final putt to win the 2011 Open Championship at Royal St. George’s, he paused for a quiet moment, smiled at the realisation that his 20-year quest was finally complete, and said a few words to himself.

The death has occurred, at the age of 89, of Loyal Goulding, Ardmahon House, Well Road, Cork, and one of the great characters of Cork and Irish golf for many years.

Scott Jamieson and Paul Waring share the halfway lead in the Nordea Masters as Thorbjorn Olesen maintained his challenge for a Ryder Cup qualifying place in Gothenburg.

Peter O’Keeffe can become the first man since Pádraig Harrington to complete a famous double after he saw off Kinsale’s John Murphy to reach the last 16 of the AIG Irish Amateur Close at the European Club.

Royal Portrush’s Stephanie Meadow posted a bogey-free 66 (-6) in the first round of the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic to put herself one behind leader Csicsi Rozsa.

Kilkenny teenager Mark Power is gunning to become the youngest winner of the West of Ireland since Rory McIlroy in 2006 after he completed two impressive wins on the opening day of matchplay combat at Rosses Point.

After a successful week of inter-club All Ireland golf for the men at Carton House the action heads north this week to Malone GC for the 2017 AIG Ladies Cups and Shields National Finals.

There was relief as much as joy for Galway Golf Club at Carton House as the pain of a third successive Barton Shield final defeat was erased with victory in the blue riband event at the AIG Cups and Shields on Saturday.

Limerick Golf Club face Galway in today’s AIG Senior Cup final aiming to bridge the 15-year gap to their last victory in Irish club golf’s blue riband competition.

Warrenpoint celebrated a second successive AIG Barton Shield title but left Galway needing to quickly banish the demons of a third successive final defeat ahead of today’s Senior Cup semi-finals.

As one of 20 teams still standing from a starting field of 1,800, Thurles Golf Club have plenty reason to be proud heading into this week’s AIG Cups and Shields finals at Carton House.

Killarney created history last weekend when the club won the ILGU Senior Cup for the first time in the club’s history.