Shane Lowry may breathe a little easier in his Ryder Cup bid now that it won’t coincide with what seemed a never-ending quest to end a victory drought as he looks to play his way onto the European team in Adare Manor next year.
Lowry ended a four-year hoodoo at the Irish Open last month in Doonbeg which briefly put him at the summit at the very early Ryder Cup qualification points list for Luke Donald’s team. The Offaly man’s big goal next season is to make a Ryder Cup appearance on Irish soil and breaking back into the winner’s circle may give him a new surge of confidence that he needs to do so.
Certainly his Irish Open victory brought a smile to the face of captain Donald.
“Shane, I think he had some near misses, and I think he was holding on to those a little bit. It was great to get the monkey off the back, I suppose, so to speak and to do it so emphatically and to do it under quite a lot of pressure,” said the Englishman.
“When you play your National Open, you care more. You want to do well more. You want to really impress those crowds, and he did that. To win by 11 shots is incredible. I haven’t ever come close to winning a tournament by that many. I don’t know what it feels like. I always felt like I had to struggle up the 18th and get it done. But you know, he had a nice lead there.
“So great to see him playing well. I know the Ryder Cup is a massive focus for him, especially here playing in Ireland. He’ll be doing everything he can to make that team.”
The Ryder Cup has become one of the great spectacles in golf and all of sport. For its fierce rivalry between America and Europe. The cream of the crop playing across a team competition. While murmurings of crowd unrest in the contest, particularly Stateside, are commonplace yet tolerable, last year’s fan behaviour in Bethpage still rankles with players and staff alike with both Donald and Jim Furyk keen to encourage a boisterous yet spirited atmosphere outside the ropes next year.
“For me, it’s certainly my responsibility as the home captain to play this Ryder Cup in the right spirit, and that’s what, certainly, in conjunction with Jim and their team, we’ll want to do. We want the best team to win on the golf course,” Donald said.
“You know, everything I’ve seen, all the previous examples of playing here in Ireland, that has been the case, and so I expect that to happen next year again at Adare.
“I can only control what I can control. Again, I feel very confident that this one will be played in a great spirit. And again, I feel responsibility to that, and it’s something that’s important to me.
“I feel like having those strong values and acting in the right way is important, and I’ll certainly be getting that over to my players and to the fans. I expect, you know, again, a very enjoyable but fiercely contested Ryder Cup.”
Furyk accepted that the behaviour of some fans in New York was over the top but he doesn’t expect to see a retaliation to that from European fans – especially not in Ireland.
“I think that we have to acknowledge that absolutely at Bethpage, the fan behaviour was over the top. I think it’s something that we need to reiterate and keep talking about; that the PGA of America has taken the steps for the future for that not to happen again,” the US captain said.
“What I expect here is a great European crowd. I think we admire how well organised they are, how they use the chants from soccer to make even more noise in unison, and I expect that they will be cheering and supporting their team like they always have.
“So it’s always been a great crowd. I look forward to it to be honest with you. I loved coming on the road. I loved playing in Europe. I loved just stepping into that arena. It gets your heart pumping, and it gives you that chip on your shoulder and a mentality that I think our players need.”
The Presidents Cup in Medinah a fortnight ago was not without its crowd disturbances. Most notably, a fan yelling on International player Nico Echavarria’s backswing during his singles match with Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler, in highlighting the misbehaviour, made an incredibly sporting gesture by conceding a 30-foot putt to Echavarria on the green.
“What happened in Scottie’s match was regrettable,” Furyk said, “and I think what an unbelievable act of sportsmanship to give that putt, halve the hole, move on. He made it a statement that it was alarming to him, as well, and nothing that we want to see.
“You know, surely that wasn’t the only act at Medinah, but I really felt like the crowd at Medinah, it was incomparable to Bethpage, and something we’re working towards the future.”