Confident Shane Lowry hits easy street on Road to Dubai
The Esker Hills man claimed his first WGC title win in August and just last weekend finished joint second at the British Masters despite cursing a cold putter across the weekend at Woburn.
A likely participant at next year’s Olympics in Rio, Lowry said he felt so confident heading into last week’s event that for the first time he boldly predicted to his manager beforehand he’d win.
He didn’t manage that but his strong finish did advance him three places in the world rankings to 18 while he is currently sitting fourth in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai standings.Rory McIlroy leads the race on just over three million points, a little over half a million more than Lowry, though the 2009 Irish Open winner has set himself a private target of reeling in that deficit.
Speaking at Croke Park where he lent his support to Offaly GAA’s drive to raise €750,000 to complete a new training centre, Lowry said: “I have something in my head I don’t want to say” in regard to his ambitions for the rest of 2016. Pressed on what that may be, and if he was ultimately aiming to win the Race to Dubai, which will be decided after the DP World Tour Championship event in Dubai on November 22, Lowry smiled. “You’re trying to pluck words out of my mouth now but... well... I’m half a million behind Rory. I don’t know what tournaments he’s playing in but, yeah, I’d definitely love to have a crack at it in Dubai. If I can win the Race to Dubai tournament itself, I can win the Race to Dubai. That’s kind of where I’m at.”
Lowry revealed he sat down on Wednesday and finalised his playing schedule for 2016 which will see him in the USA until the bumper €4m Irish Open at the K Club in May.
His ability to effectively cherry pick the world’s biggest events to participate in is a result of the elite level form which shows no signs of deserting him.
“I shot 14-under for the last three days (of the Dunhill Links championship) and, genuinely, going to the British Masters last week I was confident,” said Lowry. “I played nine holes on the Tuesday, didn’t miss a shot.
“Speaking to Conor on the phone, my manager, on Tuesday I said to him, ‘I think I’m going to win this week’. I never said that before. He said, ‘fair enough’. I do feel like I should have won last week but I’ve definitely kicked on.
“I’m playing with so much confidence now, touch wood. There’s times where golf comes easy and times where golf comes hard and, at the minute, it feels like the game is easy. I just need to kick on, not get complacent, keep working, keep going to see Robbie (Cannon, fitness expert), keep going to see Neil (Manchip, coach), play a bit of golf on my weeks off and I’m really excited about the last four weeks.”
Aside from his drive for a first major championship win, Lowry wants to push hard for a Ryder Cup place in 2016 ahead of the ties with the USA at Hazeltine in late September and early October.
“Listen, it’s the next step, European golfer,” said Lowry. “I’ve won three times, one was a World Golf Championship at 28 years of age. I’ll be 29 when the Ryder Cup is on next year so it’s time I stepped up and it’s just the next step in my career, I feel.”
As for the Olympics in Rio, Lowry insisted it’s not a done deal he’ll represent Ireland there despite being so far ahead of his nearest potential rivals for a place on the team.
“I’m not definitely on the team yet. It will take some more good golf. I know from spending a lot of time with Pádraig (Harrington) he’d love to be on that team and we all know with Pádraig he’s only ever one week away from winning a major or something. He’s never too far away but, listen, I want to go to Rio. I think it would be an amazing experience. Everyone knows how Irish I am and how patriotic I am so to go there and to walk out in the opening ceremony with the Irish team would be pretty good.”
