Staying grounded

THE CELEBRATIONS were so wild after he tapped in the little putt on Baltray’s 18th green to win the 3 Irish Open last year that Shane Lowry momentarily believed he was in the middle of a hurling crowd rather than the more gentile people who normally frequent golf tournaments.

And though this amiable man from Clara was at the epicentre of a hurricane of emotions, his recollections of that magical afternoon are hazy.

“I don’t really remember the last day to be honest,” he admits a little more than 12 months on. “The thing that stands out is holing the last putt and then being mobbed by this herd of people – it was more like a hurling match than a golf tournament. You never think something like that would happen at a golf tournament, but then most of the people who came up to Baltray from Offaly would never have been to a golf event in their lives.