Shane Lowry targeting Irish Open glory: ‘It’s been a while since Offaly won in Kilkenny’

Success at Mount Juliet remains very much the Open champion’s focus

Former Kilkenny hurler DJ Carey with Shane Lowry during the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open Pro-Am at Mount Juliet in Thomastown, Kilkenny. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

With an Open Championship title to defend and an Olympic medal to strive for this month, you could forgive Shane Lowry for looking beyond this week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open to more glittering prizes.

Yet success at Mount Juliet remains very much the major winner’s focus and Lowry has the form to achieve the feat of winning his national open as both a professional and an amateur by adding to his unexpected triumph in the rain at Baltray a dozen years ago.