G-Mac: I told him to go and be him, go play Shane Lowry golf

Graeme McDowell hailed Ireland’s newest major champion and backed Shane Lowry to finally come out from Rory McIlroy’s shadow after lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush.

The 2010 US Open champion, the only other Irishman to make the halfway cut in his hometown Open Championship, was disappointed with his own, six-over-par final-round 77, but full of praise for his 32-year-old friend, who won the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009.