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

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.

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.