Rejuvenated Shane Lowry all business for Open title on back of home comforts

HOME COMFORTS: Ireland's Shane Lowry signs autographs for the spectators during the second preview day ahead of the The 153rd Open. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

Perceptions can be hard to shift.

The image of Shane Lowry as some likeable rogue who juggles life on the pro golf tour with a love of the good life is clearly one that continues to grate on the 2019 Open champion.

The first question he took from the floor at Monday’s press conference ahead of the 153rd hosting of the tournament harked back not to his brilliance on the Dunluce Links six years ago but to the celebrations he embarked on in the aftermath.

His irritation was obvious before the question was over.

“Interesting first question, isn't it? Here to talk about golf and all anyone wants to talk about is drinking.”

A more favourably phrased follow up got him to expand a bit. His take that he would let others believe what they want as long as his nearest and dearest know the truth didn’t ring fully true but he’s probably right to dismiss it that way.

Lowry’s work ethic isn’t questioned within the game and he touched on it obliquely when asked what it is he admires most about his friend Rory McIlroy’s. His constant drive, came the reply, while adding that this is a guy who has won it all.

The Offaly man’s larder when it comes to trophies isn’t so well-stocked as McIlroy’s but he wouldn’t be the worst bet to do something magical here this week on the back of an overdue and and beneficial return to Irish soil.

Here we come to perceptions again while lapsing in to cliché. His love of home and hurling and Offaly have been flogged to death at this stage, but you only had to see the smile on his face at Croke Park last Saturday to accept that it warrants the reiterations.

The return from Florida, after a six-month period where by his own admission he played too much golf, hasn’t just been about R&R and family time. He has played Portmarnock, The Island, Baltray, Waterville, Hogs Head and Adare Manor.

Last week’s Genesis Scottish Open was given a miss, as he tends to do. The one time he played in Scotland in recent memory was the year he happened to miss The Open cut at Hoylake and, hey, if something ain’t broke then don’t fix it.

“I went and I parked myself down in Waterville last week, and I spent the week down there. I played golf every day, played a lot of golf. The weather was almost too good, that was the issue.

"There wasn't enough wind. The sun was shining too much and it was too warm. But it's been an amazing couple of weeks.

“I haven't been home to Ireland since Christmas as well, so I've been home for the last three weeks. So I've had a nice time being back home, and I kind of feel like a little bit rejuvenated and ready to go again.

"I've had a busy season, and it's about to be another kind of busy next three or four months, as well. I feel like I'm ready to go again.”

Lowry was back in Royal Portrush shortly after his return from the States when the grandstands were already erected and the memories of his win started to flood back in and he got nine holes in on the Sunday evening and then another on Monday morning.

He spoke about a sense of rejuvenation, how he is a better golfer now than the one that blitzed the field on the Dunluce links last time around here but how he has no “God-given right” to do anything similar now in 2025.

Six years on and he is still trying to figure out how he found that zone on the Saturday when he broke free of the field but there is clearly something in the fact that he had a “meltdown” on the Wednesday and his belief that he plays better when uptight.

He joked about playing too well in the last couple of weeks and that, with his fear of complacency, he would prefer to play s*** these next few days in the hope that it would frame him better for the task ahead.

“It is amazing to be back. There’s a lot of memories and there's a lot of thinking back to what I did. What I did was very special, and to walk down the 18th hole with a six-shot lead, I'm probably never going to do that again so I'm not going to try and replicate that this week.

“I'm just going to go out and try and play the tournament as well as I can this week. I've prepared as well as I can for this tournament. I know I have.

"Then it's just up to me to stay out of my own way on Thursday morning and go and get after it and see what happens.”