Shane Lowry: My heart goes out to families of Grenfell fire victims

Lowry ended his partnership with construction firm Kingspan on Tuesday, a week after the publication of the report into the fire.

Shane Lowry talks to the media at Royal County Down.

If Shane Lowry was hoping for some solace on the golf course in the midst of his decision to cut ties from long-term sponsor Kingspan, Royal County Down was far from obliging as preparations for the Amgen Irish Open continued Wednesday.

The Irish major champion faced the media a day after he had announced his decision to part ways with the Cavan-based insulation company in the wake of last week’s damning verdict on its conduct within in the final report on the Grenfell Tower Inquiry When a west London council tower block was consumed by flames in June 2017, 72 people lost their lives and six years later, the Inquiry found that Kingspan, while not directly responsible for the deadly fire, had nevertheless shown "complete disregard for fire safety" in how it marketed one of its products used in the refurbishment of the block.

The final report of the Grenfell Inquiry, published last week, said the west London tower block was covered in combustible products because of the “systematic dishonesty” of firms who made and sold the cladding and insulation.

Kingspan had, from 2005 and even after the inquiry began in the wake of the fire, “knowingly created a false market in insulation” for use on buildings over 18 metres tall (59ft), it said.

Lowry had on Tuesday issued a statement which read: "Kingspan and I have mutually agreed to discontinue our sponsorship relationship, which we believe to be the right decision for all concerned at this time. Neither party will be commenting further."

Yet his eve of tournament press conference inevitably saw the topic revisited. He was asked how difficult a decision it had been to sever ties with Kingspan, whose log he had worn on his sleeve when he won the Open Championship at Royal Portrush in 2019..

“I have said all I had to say in my statement yesterday. I said at the end of my statement that I wasn’t going to make any further comment on it, and I am sticking with that," Lowry replied, before then offering his sympathies to the families of the 72 victims.

“I can’t imagine what those families have gone through the last few years.

“I am not going to sit here and talk too much about it. It is obviously a touchy subject, and my heart goes out to them. It is what it is now for me and Kingspan."

Lowry will tee off his first round on Thursday at 12:40pm in the company of Scotland’s Robert Macintyre and New Zealand’s Ryan Fox while his comments came after a testing nine holes in strong crosswinds during the Amgen Irish Open Pro-Am.

Asked how he liked his prospects of winning his national open 15 years after claiming victory as an amateur at County Louth, he said: “Judging by those nine holes I just played not much! It’s hard.

“I haven’t played here since the last Irish Open here (in 2015) and I forgot how hard it was. It’s going to be an unbelievable test.

“The course is firm and fast for some reason because it has stopped raining in Ireland all summer, so I don’t know what they’re doing up here.

“It’s going to be a really tough test and I think it could be one of the highest winning scores ever in a European Tour event this week. Would I take level par and sit here and wait? Possibly, that’s how tough it’s going to be.

“But we have just played in probably the toughest conditions, although Saturday doesn’t look great. The next two days look okay but we’ll see how it goes.”