Brendan O'Brien, Lahinch (pic) No pressure, Shane Lowry had insisted.

South African teenager Martin Vorster became the second youngest winner in the history of the East of Ireland Championship when he closed with a brace of five-under 67s to win by four strokes from Carton House’s Paul O’Hanlon at County Louth Golf Club.

Shane Lowry knows he has the game to win majors and play Ryder Cup but he also knows that Europe and not the US might be the perfect launchpad as he bids to make Pádraig Harrington’s team for Whistling Straits next year.

Shane Lowry is saddened there will be no repeat fairytale for an amateur in next month’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

Defending champion Paul O’Hanlon fell victim to Baltray’s bunkers as he let a sensational start slip away and opened with a one-under 71 in the East of Ireland Amateur Open at County Louth.

A lot has happened to Shane Lowry since he won his national title as an amateur in 2009, yet adding an Irish Open victory as a professional is very much a serious goal for the world number 35.

Warrenpoint’s Colm Campbell survived a spectacular back nine charge from Jack Hume to clinch a heart-stopping, wire-to-wire win in the Flogas Irish Amateur Open.

The Lee Valley Senior Scratch Cup will step into a new era this season as the 2016 renewal will see the prestigious 54-hole tournament sponsored by EMC and carrying world amateur ranking points.

Mention has been made in these parts of Martin Kaymer’s irritation at his PGA Championship victory at Whistling Straits back in 2010 being framed as the major Dustin Johnson threw away, yet imagine how annoyed you’d be if you were Johnson?

His success in the WGC Bridgestone Invitiational has made Shane Lowry a bona fide star of world golf, but followers of the European Tour will remember when he burst onto the scene in 2009, winning the Irish Open as an amateur at Baltray.

Shane Lowry’s new European Tour stature has been quickly rewarded with tee times alongside Tour superstars Martin Kaymer and Henrik Stenson for the opening two rounds of the BMW International Open in Munich.

In a week that has seen many of the world’s top golfers decry the condition of Chambers Bay’s greens and take shots at the USGA’s set-up, Shane Lowry avoided the negativity and simply got on with negotiating 72 holes of the most gruelling challenge in golf.

Shane Lowry will bid to stay patient at Chambers Bay this weekend after shooting his best round in a US Open on Thursday night.

Shane Lowry will renew his quest for a major breakthrough at Chambers Bay tonight confident that his links experience can pay dividends if he matches his good form with the required levels of patience.

Tullamore’s Stuart Grehan was declared the winner after torrential rain and southerly winds forecast to gust over 100kph saw the CityNorth Hotel sponsored East of Ireland Amateur Open reduced to 54 holes for the first time in its 75-year history.

Another year, another Irish Open and the debates continue as to the best venue and time of year to play one of the most popular tournaments on the European Tour.

Rory McIlroy’s injection of golfing Hollywood into the Irish Open was manifestly evident approaching 8am yesterday, as elements of the game’s royalty limbered up to unleash their opening shots of the 2015 renewal.

A new title sponsor, superstar host, stellar field and a bigger prizefund. As if things were not already going swimmingly for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, organisers last night confirmed that today’s first-round ticket sales at Royal County Down (RCD) had made the tournament completely sold out.

Shane Lowry secured his place in next month’s US Open with another superb display at the BMW PGA Championship.

Cormac Sharvin will go into this week’s Irish Amateur Open Championship full of confidence after claiming a top-five finish at the prestigious Lytham Trophy over the weekend.

THERE’S good news on the wildlife front; BirdWatch Ireland has announced that terns nested very successfully on the east coast this summer. The numbers breeding ‘are at an all-time high’, says tern expert Dr Steve Newton.

There are five species of tern here, while Rockabill Island represent 80% of the roseate tern’s European numbers. It’s a conservation success story, says Dan MacCarthy

GOOD DAY

Robert Rock has experienced more than his share of pain and suffering at the Irish Open but the affable Englishman is slowly piecing together another challenge for one of the European Tour’s historic titles at Fota Island.

Having won the Irish Amateur Close Championship down the road at Cork Golf Club, Little Island, and formally launched the Irish Open here a few weeks ago, Shane Lowry immediately felt at home when he arrived at Fota Island on Tuesday afternoon.

Golf fans will need to be up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to arrive in good time at Fota Island to watch the marquee draw in the first round of the Irish Open Championship.

Robert Rock fully understands he will always be remembered as the fall guy in this country when Shane Lowry pulled off his sensational victory as an amateur in the 2009 Irish Open at Baltray.

East of Ireland champion Colm Campbell and leading qualifier Stuart Grehan were forced to dig deep to make it into the last 16 of the AIG-sponsored Irish Amateur Close Championship at a sun-kissed Seapoint.

The last time a former European Tour player returned as a reinstated amateur to tee it up in the East of Ireland at Baltray, Jim Carvill led by nine shots with a round to go, in 2005, and won the title by three.

Shane Lowry is hoping his most demanding schedule in two years will enable him to contend at Fota Island next month when he bids to win the second Irish Open of his career.

The countdown officially commenced at Fota Island Resort yesterday as former champion Shane Lowry gave his seal of approval to the 2014 Irish Open venue.

History-maker Shane Lowry demonstrated his brilliance on the high seas yesterday as the countdown to next month’s Irish Open at the Fota Island resort gathered pace.

Darren Clarke joins an elite club of just 25 members to have competed in 500 European Tour events when he tees up in this week’s Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

Damien McGrane might not have won the KLM Open on Sunday but his professional trajectory continues to be an example to Ireland’s budding tour stars — the poster boy for those who bite the bullet and take the PGA assistants’ route to the top.

It was the most English of distances — a couple of paces less than a cricket pitch — yet for Paul Casey the 20-yard walk to pull the ball out of the hole on the 18th green on the Montgomerie Course was the most pleasant of journeys.

A second Irish Open and the first as a professional was not to be for Shane Lowry but he is convinced that only good can come from the experiences he encountered from four up-and-down days over his home course in Co Kildare.

There are no Irish players in the top ten after round three of the Irish Open.

Shane Lowry today carried home hopes into the third round of the Irish Open after Ireland’s four major champions all missed the halfway cut at Carton House.

Shane Lowry cast himself in the role of Irish Open messiah once more when he finished with a roof-raising brace of birdies to ease the pain of a major exodus by Rory McIlroy and the rest of Ireland’s Big Five at a wind-blown Carton House.