Far from the madding crowd, quite literally. Shane Lowry is on home turf – sitting in the snug of the Old Warehouse by the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore – and the Ryder Cup hero is in reflective mood, surrounded by Offaly GAA jerseys emblazoned with the Carrolls Meats logo and photo images of the great and the good of the county.
Nearby, though, there are reminders of Lowry’s own greatness. A number of tour bags, including one with EUROPE in capitals, are dotted around the plush dining area of the establishment and that memory of his putt on the 18th at Bethpage Black to win the hole and halve his singles with Russell Henley to ensure Luke Donald’s team retained the Ryder Cup – Tyrrell Hatton would later ensure retention moved on to a win – remains fresh in the memory.
Why wouldn’t it?
“I actually think about a lot, like, probably far too much, honestly. Like, I do think about it a lot,” said Lowry of that six, seven-footer which, just after Henley had missed on a similar line, disappeared into the tin cup and prompted a wild, spontaneous jig of celebration.
Lowry has seen the social media posts of his wild dance around the 18th complete with Micheal O’Hehir’s famous commentary of Séamus Darby’s winning goal for Offaly in the 1982 All-Ireland final – when Shane’s father, Brendan, was also on the team – and laughs at the similarity of the two celebrations.
“The celebration was just pure. I’m sure it was like Seamus Darby, what he did, when he scored that goal, he didn’t know what to do with himself. I was the same,” said Lowry.
Shane Lowry celebrates a putt on the 18th green to retain the Ryder Cup for Team Europe. Photograph: David Davies/PA
Of all the long, accurate drives and brilliance of his iron play, that putt though was the golden hallmark of Lowry’s season’s work and added another golden touch to a career that is just two years shy of two decades long yet with more achievements surely to come his way.
Lowry is now 38 years of age but looks to the likes of Justin Rose – now 45 – as a model for how to remain competitive and extend the longevity of a golfer’s career.
To that end, Lowry looks fitter and leaner than at any point of his career after a regime working with personal trainer Robbie Cannon, the Dubliner who – on Lowry’s weeks off – will fly to Florida for hands-on weeklong sessions.
Indeed, on what can be a touchy subject, Lowry offered:
“I’m not stupid. I’m 39 in April, so like, I’m not getting any younger. But I do feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in, and I feel like my game is as good as it’s ever been. So, I feel like there’s still some of my best years are ahead of me.
“I go back to the Ryder Cup in Whistling Straits [in 2021], where I was probably as big as I ever was. Like, the worst shape I was in, probably, but I was playing some of the best golf in my life. It’s interesting, I was probably 112, 114 kilos, and now I’m in around 100 kilos, like 99, 100 sort of thing.
“But there’s been a lot of process, strategy in it. I’m not saying it’s easy to lose weight and get smaller, but there’s a way to do it when you’re a golfer, and I feel like Robbie and I have done it the right way.”
He added: “If I can get another a good five or six years out myself, I sort of have 45 in my head, I’m not saying I’m going to retire when I’m 45 but what I’m saying is I feel like if I can get to 45 still at a competitive level, I’ve done very, very well, you know, because I’ve done 17 years on tour now, it’s a long, long time. That’s a long career in a sport. And I feel like if I can get up to 20, 21, 22 years [on tour] at a high level, like, I’ve had a really, really good career.
“Look, I’ve always been conscious about my weight. Right? And I’ve always been that way, and I’ve always wanted to lose weight, and I kind of get obsessed with it at times, but having someone like Robbie, who knows the ins-and-outs and knows the way to do it.
“I trust him on what he does. So yeah, I think we’ve done a good job of getting it right. And I still have a long way to go, I still am working towards some goals that I have in that regards and I’m trying to get stronger, I’m trying to get faster, I’m trying to hit the ball further.
“I generally don’t like talking about it too much, but I actually love working out now. I love training like I really do. I wake up every day and I do it, and it’s at the forefront of my mind every day, is like, ‘What time am I going to train at?’ and then I work my practice schedule around that.”
Lowry, too, has attributed being around Rory McIlroy so much – the Lowrys and the McIlroys live in the same Florida community – as another factor in focusing on fitness: “Rory’s one of the greatest players of all time; if he’s doing it, I feel like I probably should be as well.”
And that bond between the two was never more evident anywhere than at this year’s Ryder Cup in New York, where the baying crowd – over the top on many occasions – made for an attritional atmosphere and when Lowry unintentionally took on the role of a protector of sorts to McIlroy in their fourballs, particularly on a raucous Saturday where the pair ultimately closed out the match on the 17th green for a two holes win over Justin Thomas and Cameron Young.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry of Team Europe celebrate after winning the Ryder Cup. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA
Of that protective, big brother-like role, Lowry said: “I wasn’t really expecting that. I’m semi-protective of him anyway. I feel like he always gets a hard [time], like he’s Rory McIlroy, he’s one of the greatest players of all time, and he puts himself on that pedestal at times and says some stuff that he probably shouldn’t, but I feel like he gets like a different rap than like other players at his level.
“I feel like he gets criticised more than maybe he should do at times. Like, after the US Open in Pinehurst, I was a bit outspoken about how much s**t he was getting for that, really, but [at Bethpage] was I ever, like, told that I was going to be his protector or anything? ‘No!’ I don’t know but I feel like I played that role nicely.”
And, he did, especially on the Saturday before on the Sunday, moving into the spotlight. When many others were faltering that day and the USA comeback caught momentum, it came to his putt on the 18th in a match with Henley which statistically was the best of all the 11 singles encounters.
“If you’d have told me [on the Thursday before the match], I was going to have a six or seven footer to retain the Ryder Cup in one of the last matches out on Sunday, I probably would have gotten a car and went to JFK, went home. I was like, honestly, I was like, not wanting that at all,” said Lowry, adding: “But I look back on it, and I’m like, that was one of the best things I’ve ever done You know what I mean? You have to live the pressure to enjoy it afterwards. But as it’s all happening, it’s absolutely miserable, it’s horrible!”
Lowry will start his season’s work for 2026 on the DP World Tour with back-to-back tournaments in Dubai before heading back to the PGA Tour as he will be aiming for another win to add to his CV.
“I just need to keep knocking on the door. I need to keep building that consistency. I’ve got some goals where I really would like to win again. I want to contend in the Majors. Obviously, you’re not going to have everything, but the one thing I can do is focus on what I do day to day. And that’s what I’ve been doing. I think I’ve been doing it very well over the last while,” said Lowry.
And, down the tracks, there is that upcoming Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in 2027.
“It’s funny, because, if you were to sit down and say to me here now, you’re going be a part of a winning Ryder Cup team in Adare Manor, I’d be like, I genuinely don’t care what I do for next two years. I definitely don’t want to be driving buggies in Adare. So, that’s, that’s my number one [priority]. I know there’s a chance I’ll be there in some capacity, but I want to be playing.”
