House of horrors for major league stars
Words probably cannot properly describe the anguish that the European Tour, the venue and the sponsors must now be feeling with many of their marquee names gone for the weekend, but much like the similar carnage witnessed at Wimbledon this year, the show must go on.
And surely this is one of the very reasons why sport is so compelling? Sport offers no guarantees. As fans and enthusiasts we all have our favourites, be they Tiger Woods or Rory McIlroy, Paul O’Connell or Tommy Bowe and we probably long to see them performing to the heights of their talents all the time, but if that was always the case, then how would anyone else emerge?
The major champions will undoubtedly be missed this weekend at Carton House, but so too will Paul O’Connell for the Lions in Australia or Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in Wimbledon, but one man’s pain in another man’s opportunity.
In truth, none of the poster boys played anywhere near their capabilities over the past couple of days at Carton House. All struggled to separate themselves away from the dreaded “cut zone” and as a result, their performances were riddled with the type of self-induced errors we are more accustomed to seeing from less competent performers.
Shane Lowry would have started yesterday’s round with mixed emotions because he would have known that many of his more illustrious compatriots were about to miss the cut. He would also have been quite aware of the pedigree of the players in front of him forging their way up the leaderboard.
In truth, by the time he started, any hope of an Irish victory this weekend at Carton House, rested squarely on his shoulders alone.
His start was poor. Indeed it seemed as if we was feeling too much for his good friend McIlroy, but by the middle of the round he knuckled down producing a display that few could live with. From holes nine through 13, he demonstrated all his skills from power to precision, from deft touch to absolute determination.
His resolve to enter the fray of potential contenders for the tournament was wonderful to watch and throughout it all he still found time to console his buddy’s losing effort and converse with his appreciative gallery.
To say that Lowry is a breath of fresh air is an understatement because he is so much more. That he is exactly the right type of person now to shoulder Ireland’s aspirations this weekend is without doubt, but quite apart from all of that, the connection he has with the public at large means that the carnage of yesterday will soon be forgotten.
This weekend, if Lowry is to challenge, he will once again have to overcome one Robert Rock, the man whom he beat but who “took his money” when winning the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009 in Baltray. Rock is a proven competitor and looks in fine fettle this week as does the strong Peter Uihlein (the former US Amateur Champion and top-ranked world amateur) who has already one this year in Madeira in what is his first year on the European Tour.
For sentimental reasons, I also hope my old friend and Irish Open champion in 1990 Jose Maria Olazabal continues the great vein of form he has shown in the past few days. Though long in the tooth, he still possesses a calibre of shot-making skills few can match, but it remains to be seen if he can still remain fully competitive against the power of the younger generation of players.
His driver is undoubtedly his achilles heel but with strong winds forecast for the weekend, who knows?
