Shane Lowry left with Saturday regrets but Olympic medal the new focus

It's next stop Paris after an eventful week at Troon.

Ireland's Shane Lowry after finishing his round on Sunday. Pic: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

The Olympics lies just days in the distance now and the last few laps of the track leading in to it have been strewn with cautions from Irish pundits and officials about expectations and reminders that success looks different for every athlete.

For some, making it to Paris is the height of their bar. For others nothing less than gold will do. The same could hold for The Open but, unlike the Games, where 987 people will stand on a podium, there could only be one winner in Ayrshire.

That’s golf. Even Tiger Woods lost more tournaments than he won and, while Shane Lowry had the bit between his teeth when he led the field at the hallway stage after rounds of 66 and 69, his laments this morning are just part of a much larger chorus.

Padraig Harrington verbalised the winner’s creed before round one when he declared that it was first or nowhere for him. What was fifth, he said, but a pat on the back? Lowry finished sixth here but he was determined to see the week in a positive light.

“It is, and you're at the very top level. You go out there and put yourself out there in front of everyone and give it your best. [Saturday] afternoon wasn't a high point in my career. Those nine holes, I'm probably going to rue them for a while, but it is what it is now.

“I'm proud of myself the way I came back [on Sunday]. I holed some great putts when I needed to. Even that one at 17, I was pretty pumped with that. I thought, if I could birdie the last, you never know, and I managed to leave it four feet short.

“It's a bit stupid. It is what it is. There's a lot of positives, a lot of FedEx Cup points to take away from this, even Race to Dubai points. A few World Ranking points as well. So it's nice.” Saturday night was hard, no denying that.

He leaked seven shots in ten holes, starting with that double bogey at the par-three 8th Postage Stamp, and never got to grips with his game, or the wild and wet conditions for the rest of his round. It left him playing catchup on the last day and his mind tormented.

Lowry hung around the course for some hours after it, chewing through the gristle of the day with his coach Neil Manchip and the rest of his team. Padraig Harrington happened by and tried to proselytise with his brand of positive thinking.

“I was trying not to listen,” Lowry joked.

His daughter Iris worked on the same vein, telling her daddy that the tournament was still his to win. That put a smile on his face and Lowry went to bed two nights ago having promised Manchip that one thing he would do was fight for her every shot on every hole.

He remembered Oakmont eight years ago when he was in the box seat at the US PGA but put in a terrible last round. He still feels that he didn’t “fight enough” that day and, in fairness, he didn’t fall short here for want of effort.

A bogey on the third could have persuaded him that this just wasn’t his week but he stuck at it with a run of four birdies across the next five holes. It left him on the coattails of the leaders but a bogey on 11 and one more birdie on 17 was the extent of his back nine.

Rory McIlroy had stood in almost the same spot in the mixed zone two days earlier, after what was for him a dismal Open experience, and talked about going on a vacation and then turning the focus towards the Olympics in Paris.

It’s not putting McIlroy down to point out that his mention of the Games was prompted by a question and not exactly brimming with enthusiasm. The guy had just missed the cut after two horrendous rounds, after all.

Lowry talked about holidays and the Games too, but it was him who brought up the latter. He had arrived at the course earlier that day with a Team Ireland Olympic bag hoisted over his shoulder and he is every bit as much a medal shot as McIlroy. Maybe more so.

“I'm playing good golf and I'd love to win a medal for Ireland. Obviously I'd want it to be gold, but I'd probably take either three. So, yeah, I'm very excited about it. I'm looking forward to the week.

“Obviously Paris National is going to be a great test and a great course. That medal isn't going to be around your neck until you're finished on that 18th green, that's for sure, at that place.”