Lowry doesn't buy distance debate: 'Has Bryson won every tournament he’s played in? No.'

Shane Lowry isn't obsessed with Ryder Cup or big hitters

Shane Lowry plays his shot from the first tee during the third round of the Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course on last week ((**NOV 7, 2020**)). Picture: Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Shane Lowry has made no secret of his determination to make the Ryder Cup team this year but he insists he’s not obsessed by Whistling Straits just supremely confident he will be on that plane.

The popular Offaly man (33) has spoken about the Ryder Cup hundreds of times since Pádraig Harrington was appointed as European captain more than two years ago. But he’s also adamant in what is a classic chicken and egg situation that it’s not him who is consumed by thoughts of Wisconsin in September but the media that’s lost the run of itself when it comes to his long-overdue debut.

“No,” he said in response to a question asking if he had the Ryder Cup on the brain. “It’s just every time I talk to you guys, you ask me about it. It’s hard not to look like I am thinking about it. I don’t know what I am supposed to do. I am not going to sit here and say I don’t want to talk about it or I am not talking about it. If I am asked about it, I am going to talk about it.

“Obviously it is a big goal of mine and if I am at home on my couch in September watching it on TV, it won’t be a good place for me. But I am very comfortable with my own ability and comfortable with my own mental thoughts and where I am at in the game now.

“I am 34 this year and I feel I have matured quite well. I am confident. Yeah, I am confident I will make the team. It is just up to me to go out there and play good golf.” 

Competition for nine automatic places on Harrington’s team will be red-hot and with Lowry missing the cut on his 2021 debut in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and following that with an equally mixed performance in last week’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic, where he tied for 27th, he would welcome a good week in this week’s Saudi International powered by SoftBank Investment Advisors, where a stellar field has been assembled at considerable expense to sponsors.

That said, he’s not panicking just yet, knowing he just has to find his A-game two or three times all season to achieve his goals.

“I didn’t have the best two weeks the last fortnight but I think I have been around long enough to realise that a full season doesn’t rest on the first two weeks of the year,” Lowry said after the Pro-Am where the efforts of the mid-handicappers in his group confirmed his belief that the R&A and USGA are barking up the wrong tee in their battle against distance. It’s more distance that amateurs need, he believes, not less.

As for his own game, he just needs his putter to warm up in what will be his final event in the Middle East before he heads for his US base to play five events in a row before the Masters.

“It was one of those where it wasn’t the best two weeks but I feel that my game is okay,” he said. “When I do look over my game, I am probably not holing as many putts as I would like but other than that I feel like my whole game is pretty good."

He might be The Open champion but the R&A is unlikely to call the Offaly man asking him to be a spokesman in their war on excessive hitting distance.

Lowry simply doesn’t buy it or understand what the game’s governing bodies are trying to do, seemingly interpreting efforts to roll back the ball or clubs as an attack on the top tour players.

The R&A and USGA this week proposed limiting the length of clubs to 46 inches, likely putting paid to Bryson DeChambeau’s hopes of putting a 48-inch driver in play at the Masters.

“The only reason they are doing it is because one person keeps talking about it all the time, and about how far he is hitting it,” Lowry said of the 'Mad Scientist'.

As for worries about courses all over the world becoming obsolete as players hit the ball further and further, Lowry is having nothing of it.

“I don’t buy into it,” he said. “I don’t really read much about it and I don’t really get into it. I think the game is fine the way it is.

“The R&A and USGA, they don’t want the game to get away from them where guys are hitting it 400 yards. But I personally can’t see that happening.

“My thing is that if Bryson hadn’t done what he’s done in the last six months, we wouldn’t even be talking about it right now. Genuinely. Has Bryson won every tournament he’s played in? No.” 

He added: “We are going to play the US Open at Torrey Pines this year and there are par fours of 530 yards. We need the ball to go 350 yards off the tee…” 

As an example of a chicken and egg situation in golf, he couldn't have chosen a better example.