Shane Lowry will wait and see before finalising Irish Open plans

Shane Lowry lines up a putt on the ninth hole during the third round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament at Sedgefield Country Club on Saturday. Picture: AP/Photo: Chris Carlson)

Things are falling into place for the rest of Shane Lowry’s 2020 campaign, including his plans to play next month’s rescheduled Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.

Yet the Open champion will wait a while longer before making a final decision on returning home to participate in the September 24-27 tournament at its new host course in Co. Antrim.

Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort was announced by the European Tour last week as the new venue after it was unable to take the event to its intended site at Mount Juliet in Co. Kilkenny due to the Irish Government maintaining its limit of 200 people for outdoor gatherings in the Republic.

There will be a much-reduced prize fund of €1.25 million compared to recent years and a further complication is it follows straight after the rearranged US Open at Winged Foot in New York from September 17-20 but Lowry still wants to play his national open.

Asked about his participation in the behind-closed-doors event following his final round at the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina, Lowry said: “That's my plan, yeah, but we'll see what happens. My plan is actually to go back to Ireland that week anyway after the US Open.

“Look, we'll see how it is. There's been quite a few cases over the last few days in Ireland. So, look, I don't want to make any decisions, what is it, six weeks out. I'll make them over the next couple weeks.”

Of the new host venue, near Ballymena, the world number 28 said: “I've never been there. I've heard it's nice, heard it's a lovely hotel and good golf course, so yeah. We'll be in the European Tour bubble, that's a bit tighter than this one over here, so yeah.”

More immediately, Lowry has seen his PGA Tour season extended thanks to his tie for 23rd place at the Wyndham which propelled him from 131st into the top 125 of the FedEx Cup rankings and the FedEx Play-Off Series. 

Shane Lowry during the Hong Kong Open earlier this year. Picture: AP Photo/Andy Wong

That means a start at the $9.5m Northern Trust in Boston and the 33-year-old, who shot a second-round 63 at the Wyndham before closing 70-67, admitted on Sunday night that thoughts of qualification had played on his mind during his final round.

“Today shouldn't have been that stressful, but it was. I don't know why. You know, you look at what I've achieved in the last year or two, stuff like that shouldn't really be as stressful as it was, but it was. It's a big deal.

“We all know if we can make it to Boston that a good week there, you know, can do big things... hopefully I can go and play some good golf next week.

“Obviously the goal next week would be to make Chicago (with a top 70 finish in the rankings this weekend). Then the goal from there is to make it to (the top-30 and the Tour Championship at) East Lake, but that would be a hell of a three weeks.

“I need to do something very special. But I feel like I'm playing good golf. To be honest, I feel like all that outside stuff got in my way a little bit over this weekend. I felt like I was in a great position heading into the weekend, I just struggled yesterday.

“Then today I got off to a great start and it was going lovely. Then the last few holes, it was almost like, you know, you're playing on the cut mark. It was strange. Like I said, it shouldn't really be that stressful for me, but it was. 

I'm thankful of that on the last because I had a similar situation here three years ago, I needed to make birdie on the last to get in and I had the exact same shot as I had there and I hit wedge to the front of the green and I hit wedge there to about six feet, so that was nice.

Now Lowry feels he needs to take another step up in his game off the tee to make an impression this week.

“I played lovely in Memphis (T6 at the FedEx St Jude) and then I went to the PGA, sort of a little bit of expectation on me. I started off lovely for 27 holes, I think I was four under and I was flying. Then I just kind of let it slip away. I didn't drive the ball that well over the weekend and it kind of stayed with me this week.

“I've been able to hit a lot of 3-woods and 5-woods off the tees here, which has helped, but if I'm going to try and compete in the next few events, I need to start driving the ball a little bit better than I have been.”