Shane Lowry On Five-Week Stretch, Tough PGA National Setup And Ryder Cup Pride

Shane Lowry On Five-Week Stretch, Tough PGA National Setup And Ryder Cup Pride

February 25, 2026



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The Irish star explains why he’s playing five weeks in a row during the Florida swing and how staying at home makes the stretch manageable.

Lowry discusses wanting a tougher setup at PGA National, the demanding run from Riviera to Bay Hill to The Players and why some events struggle with their spot on the schedule.

He also reflects on Ireland’s golfing rise — from Harrington to McIlroy — and what it means to have major championships and a Ryder Cup heading back home.

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  1. “Lucky” ? Ireland , historically is a golf nation. Long before the US .

    It has some of the best courses and land in the world . It has courses all over the the island and loads of kids play it a junior level. If not golf, they play pitch n putt.

    How’s it lucky to host so many tournaments ?

    No luck to it but decades of hard work to get the courses to a high standard and promote the sport and getting politicians to get behind promoting the idea of bringing tournaments to Ireland

    The Professional Irish Open went through a few decades without having a presence due to economic reasons , but had been a major feature of the European Tour . Plenty of top amateur tournaments though.

    It doesn’t always get all of the top European players or US players (hell, Rory often skipped it ) , but the prize money has gotten better.

    The worse is when JP McManus decides to run is ego vanity pro am every 5 years at his course in Limerick , the same fucking week as the Irish Open , as seen in 2023. Rory wasn’t arse about the Irish Open but went all out to try and win the poxy pro am . None of the big names Americans signed up to play in the Irish Open but were all there for JP’s vanity project .

    The issue is that it’s bounced between May , June , July , August and now September . Ideally it would be between the US Open and Open but Scottish open seems to be favoured as a prep for the Open, as far as Americans are concerned, despite loads of them coming to Ireland to prepare (including Tiger back in the day ) . September along with the BMW U.K. PGA is probably its best position now so long as the weather holds up .

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