Refreshed Shane Lowry sure he can still rescue a 'decent' year

Shane Lowry of Ireland during a media conferene at the pro-am in advance of the Amgen Irish Open. Pic: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Rory McIlroy took some exception recently when a picture was painted of him as a man who isn’t playing a whole lot of golf lately. Shane Lowry couldn’t mount a counter-argument with anything like the same authority.

Clara’s finest has been seen at just one tournament in the seven weeks since he tied for 28th spot at The Open in mid-July. That was for the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis where, he admits, he was basically going through the motions.

Finishing outside the top 50 in the FedEx Cup rankings - in 62nd - meant he was on the outside looking in for the BMW Championship and the start of the end-of-season bunfight that ended with Scottie Scheffler winning the Tour Championship.

Take the year as a whole, with his hard-to-stomach failures to clinch the Cognizant Classic and the Dubai Invitational back in the spring, and it would be all too easy to imagine a player ill at ease with his game and his lot between the ropes.

“I'm not too disheartened by the whole thing,” he said ahead of this week’s Amgen Irish Open. “I feel like there's still time to rescue a decent year.

"Like, look, I left Memphis a few weeks ago, right, and I wasn't in the BMW. And everyone in the BMW is going home sulking, and I went home and I wasn't too discouraged from the whole thing.

“I felt like I was getting three weeks off and getting a chance to get to refresh myself and come to The Irish Open and Wentworth [for the BMW PGA Championship] and refresh and energize and hopefully give them a good go.

“I feel like the last few years, I come into this part of the season or the latter part of the season kind of going through the motions because I feel like I'm overgolfed, whereas I don't feel like that this year. Who knows?” 

It’s somehow 17 years since he won his national championship at Baltray as a baby-faced amateur, and he has his homework done in his attempt to be a factor at Trump International Golf Links and Hotel in Doonbeg this week.

Lowry came to play this course for the first time just a few weeks ago when he got in 18 holes. He followed it up with nine more on Monday and another full round in calmer conditions on the Wednesday. He clearly likes the track. And the crowds at the pro-am.

“There's not many kids in school in Clare today,” he laughed.

Lowry can be hard on himself, and on courses that get on his nerves, but he cut a relaxed figure as he held court here after a period where he has been working away in the background rather than playing in the full glare of the public.

He doesn’t profess to be a stats guy but his numbers don’t throw up any red flags for him and he feels there has been a lot of ‘nearly’ golf being played during a stint of average results that he insists won’t define his career.

“You need to ride the wave and fight your way through it, and that’s what I feel like I’m doing.” 

Padraig Harrington would vouch for all that. The pair play quite a bit of golf together and the Dubliner reckons that the Offaly man has been taking the money off him after most of the rounds they have shared this year.

“Definitely, for me, from the outside, he's a much better golfer. He's the best golfer version of him I've seen, this year, all the way through his game. He's really very, very comfortable with his game and what he's doing.” 

Lowry would like to be striking his irons a bit better but his putting is better now than before and his overall take on his game was remarkably similar to Harrington’s. Added to that is his talk of feeling “refreshed” right now and his thoughts on events near to these parts next year.

Just 53 weeks and a spin around the Shannon Estuary separates this week’s event from the 2027 Ryder Cup in Adare Manor and Lowry from a fourth appearance at the biannual battle with Team America.

It’s an event that doesn’t need any embellishment, even if he got a good reminder of the dynamics and the giddiness that comes with these team events after GB&I’s comeback defeat of the US in Lahinch in last week’s Walker Cup.

“Yeah, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of my goals over the next 12 months are going to be revolving around one thing and that's going to be part of a winning Ryder Cup Team at Adare.

“When it got announced as Adare Manor, the Ryder Cup in '27, it's something that I looked at and it would be very, very special to play a Ryder Cup at home. I know a home one is in Europe but an Irish home Ryder Cup would be very special.

“I was at the one at The K Club [in 2006] on the Friday, and yeah, it gives me goosebumps even just thinking about it. So a lot of the reason why can I get out of bed over the next 12 months will be working towards that.”