There was a lightness about Shane Lowry in The K Club on Wednesday. At a morning meeting on a soggy day by the river Liffey, a child from the Make-A-Wish foundation named Darragh told Lowry that Rory McIlroy was his favourite player.
“Oh, well,” quipped Lowry. “He’s probably mine as well.”
Picked last week for Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team for New York at the end of the month, there is little for Lowry to feel morose about.
The Irish Open, which begins on Thursday, is certainly on his mind, especially over a course he knows well. With the selection news from Sunday still fresh in his head, it’s the Ryder Cup that yanks his chain hardest.
“If we win the Ryder Cup in a few weeks, I don’t really care what’s gone on the rest of the season,” he says. “It’s a big thing for me. Obviously, you go through the whole year and you’re trying to win and trying to play well and you’ve got lots of goals. But a big, big goal for me was win the Ryder Cup this year at Bethpage, and it hasn’t changed.
“I think, if we’re sitting there in the team room on a Sunday, nobody will care what’s gone on over the last eight months, so, yeah, it’s way up there with me. As I get older, it’s getting more and more important. I just love to do it.”
This season, two runners-up placings without getting a win leaves the Irish Open and Wentworth next week as the two tournaments before the Ryder Cup to break the duck.
Shane Lowry at The K Club. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
Lowry won the Irish Open in 2009 at Baltray as only the third amateur player to win a European Tour event.
The then 22-year-old beat England’s Robert Rock after three extra holes of the County Louth Golf Club were required to separate the two.
“We prepare for big tournaments all the time, and you always have bigger goals ahead,” he says. “I would love to win the Irish Open. I’ve been lucky enough to win one, and to win it as a pro as well would be amazing.
“Obviously there are an exciting few weeks ahead, starting with this week. I think, as a golfer, as an Irish golfer, as a European golfer, if I can’t get myself motivated and ready and up for what’s to come over the next month, starting with Thursday here, I should pack it in.
“It’s good to be back here at a place I know pretty well. I get to stay in my own bed for a few days, which is nice. Yeah, things have been going pretty well. The week has been going very nice so far.”
Shane Lowry with Kevin Lobo, CEO of Stryker. Photograph: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
The European team are expecting their US opponents to be as combative and tough as they always are at home, although with 11 players of the team of 12 that played in Rome two years ago making a return, they have developed a hard carapace for the slings and arrows of the competition.
It makes for an unusual team – players who are familiar with each other, as there has been just one change over two years.
Europe also hope to make a trip to New York for some reconnaissance and practice on the Bethpage Black course before the competition begins, a repeat of what they did in Rome when they beat the Zach Johnson-led Americans.
“I think [captain Luke Donald] wants people to stay in the same time zone. We live in that time zone anyway. I’m not sure if I’m going to go home to Florida for a couple of days and see my kids or stay in New York and practice there,” says Lowry.
“But yeah, I feel like our team is very, very accomplished. A lot of the guys are playing well. I’m very excited for Bethpage.”
Lowry tees off at The K Club at 7.50am on Thursday morning and plays with Brooks Koepka and Martin Couvra.
