Lowry aims to make most of Irish Open home draw

Former champion Shane Lowry believes playing this year’s Irish Open on home ground at Carton House can help him regain the European Tour title he first won as an amateur four years ago.

Lowry, 25, announced himself on golf’s world stage at Baltray in 2009 when he upstaged the professionals with a thrilling play-off victory over Robert Rock. The Offaly golfer turned professional soon after and backed up his maiden victory last October when he landed his first pro win at the Portugal Masters, a success that propelled him to a career-high number 52 in the world rankings at Christmas.

Now ranked 64th, and having lived on the Carton House estate for the last 18 months, he hopes he will be enjoying more than just a short walk to work when the European Tour event returns to the Kildare resort in the last week of June for the first time since a two-year stint for the tournament on the Montgomerie Course ended in 2006.

Lowry has not played a competitive round at Carton but his regular practice on the Montgomerie and O’Meara courses since he moved to the estate, in addition to GUI panel sessions in his amateur days, means he will be perfectly prepared for his tournament debut on the property.

“It’s one of the best courses in the country,” Lowry said yesterday. “Carton House in general is probably one of the best sporting facilities in the British Isles, if not in Europe. The quality of everything here has really helped me up my game over the past year.

“When I moved here I was probably 200th in the world, so it’s obviously improved me quite a bit.

“I think it will [be a benefit], yeah. Obviously I know the Monty course quite well, I have lived down on the O’Meara course for the past year and a half and I’ve practised here since I turned pro, and even before that,” Lowry said. “So I know it quite well, I’ll be going out to play it a lot between now and the Irish Open.

“That was one of the main reasons why I did well in Baltray and yeah, I think it will give me an advantage. It’s going to have that bit of added pressure as well but that’s up to me to deal with. I would quite fancy my chances here.”

While Irish Open tickets go on sale at www.europeantour.com/tickets, Lowry has more pressing matters regarding his participation in the World Golf Championship-Accenture Match Play later this month in Tucson, Arizona. The Irishman needs to hold on to his current position when the latest rankings are issued next Monday to ensure the 64th and final slot in the $8.75 million (€6.5m) tournament, which begins February 20. Yet he is not playing this week and could be overtaken by a number of players in the race for the first WGC of the year, meaning he could miss out on a first-round match against either world No 1 Rory McIlroy, or possibly No 2 Tiger Woods, unless there are withdrawals from the field.

Speaking at yesterday’s press conference to promote this year’s annual European Tour event on Irish soil, Lowry even admitted that studying the world rankings of late had affected his recent performances as he has tried too hard in practice and as a result missed cuts in both Abu Dhabi in January and Dubai last week.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I think it has [affected my performance], and it has done in the past as well. It’s looking like I’m probably just going to miss out on the Match-Play. Or maybe I might scrape in and if I do scrape in I’m going to get quite an exciting draw. So I’ll just have to wait and see and hopefully I’ll be in on Monday.

“If I’m playing in the tournament I’m going to be against either Rory or Tiger so I’m going to have to make plenty of birdies and I’ll have nothing to lose playing against them. Everyone wants to play against those two lads. If I do it will be a good experience.”