From Sunday morning nerves to lifting the Claret Jug, Shane Lowry’s big day out at Royal Portrush turned the Irishman from nearly man into a force to be reckoned with among golf’s elite.

No man is an island, not even in a non-team sport like golf and while Shane Lowry is not one to use “we” when referring to his achievements in the style of many of his counterparts in golf’s elite, the Irishman is not afraid to give credit where it is due.

He had been here before. As recently as 2016 in fact, when he held a four-shot lead going into the final round of the US Open at Oakmont, but this was different, or so he claimed. Older, more mature and now the married father of a two-year-old daughter, life had indeed moved on outside the ropes but what about his golf game?