Shane Lowry learning to embrace the struggle that paved the way to his first Open triumph

Gavin Cooney reports from Royal Portrush

IT’S AN IMAGE easily summoned: Shane Lowry, Claret Jug in hand, eyes shimmering behind a curtain of rain. 

And like any photograph of a great triumph, its struggles have been airbrushed out. 

A year earlier, Lowry was weeping very different tears. He sat alone in his car after the first round of the Open Championship in Carnoustie, an opening-round 74 leaving him looking over his shoulder rather than up the leaderboard.

It would be a fifth missed cut in a year that lacked a single top-10 along with an invite to the Masters. 

Lowry split from his caddie Dermot Byrne that same day: if a rupture was inevitable then its timing was indecently hasty. His coach Neil Manchip took the bag for Friday’s round, after which he went home early and put an SOS call into his brother Alan for some temp work.

“Golf wasn’t my friend at the time”, reflected Lowry a year later. “It was something that became very stressful and it was weighing on me and I just didn’t like doing it.” 

The awful thing about golf is its volatility but that can be the best thing about it too. 

A year later, Lowry stepped off the 17th tee of the third round of the Open Championship and turned to his new caddie, Bo Martin and said, “Bo, whatever happens, we have to enjoy this next 20 minutes or so.”

Lowry was playing like he was blessed with some kind of divine fire. He had birdied seven of his last 14 holes to roar clear of the pack, and bring the crowds at Royal Portrush into a kind of fervour. He would birdie 17 too on his way to a third-round 63 that meant he had effectively won the Open. The complication was that he had to go out on Sunday to not lose it.

He hardly slept, but woke up to hang grimly on through the absurd rain. When his tee shot on 17 found the fairway, he looked to the sky and puffed out his cheeks: he would be the Open champion. The 18th fairway thus became a giddy procession, as Lowry slowed his pace to find familiar faces around him while thousands more charged behind him, waving tricolours and chanting ole, ole. 

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“What I did was very special”, says Lowry today, “and to walk down the 18th hole with a six-shot lead, I’m probably never going to do that again, so I’m not going to try and replicate that this week.” 

So, to this week. 

“I feel like I’m a better golfer than I was in 2019″, he says. “I am a better golfer than I was in 2019. But it doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and win by seven this year instead of six. It’s just golf, that’s the way it is. As a golfer, you always have to look at it as the glass is always half-full. You can’t look at it any other way.” 

Along with becoming one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour, Lowry has breached the top-10 in the world rankings, and these facts, along with the status bestowed by his Claret Jug, have made him a headline name in the US.  

But while his glass is half-full, he has a few sideline bristles and frustrations all the same. The more attention Lowry has garnered in America, the more he chafes as that coverage’s more rudimentary aspects; impressions of him that are always at their most Carroll’s Gift Stores whenever he’s playing in Ireland.

The very first question of his press conference at Portrush today, for instance, asked him to reflect on how he celebrated his 2019 triumph. Lowry flicked a look at the row of Irish journalists in front of him and said, “Interesting first question, isn’t it? Here to talk about golf and all anyone wants to talk about is drinking.”

Shortly after, a journalist with whom Lowry has a good relationship asked him if he was fed up of this impression of him as a pint-swilling craic merchant. (Note: not a verbatim edition of the question.)

“Look, I’ll let people believe what they want to believe and I kind of do my own thing”, replied Lowry. “The people close to me know what I’m like.”

Of greater concern is the finishing ability he showcased here six years ago has deserted him. Exclude the team event Zurich Classic and his sole tournament win since the Open came at Wentworth in 2022, while he has recently been stuck in a rut at the majors. 

Having seen opportunities to win at last year’s PGA and Open slide by, he turned a promising Masters Saturday position into a miserable Sunday 81, and he then missed the cut at both the PGA and the US Open.

At Quail Hollow he was heard slamming the turf yelling “F**k this place”, while at Oakmont he bogeyed a par-five and walked off the green muttering “F**k this place, f**k this place.” Portrush should at least stall that trend.

“As my own mental game regards that, I’ve had a couple of episodes this year, but golf is hard at this level”, says Lowry, slightly abashed, when asked a general question about his mental game.

“Since 2019, apart from the Covid year, I feel like my golf has been okay”, he continues, “It’s been very consistent. Obviously I’ve not won as much as I would have liked, but it’s hard to win out there. You just need to keep going with day-to-day, week-to-week, and give yourself the best chances.”

There has been another caddie change too, and Lowry is now working with Darren Reynolds, with Bo Martin now carrying Min Woo Lee’s bag. In a recent video with the R&A reliving that glorious walk down 18 in 2019, he revealed he told Martin that he loved him, before adding with a laugh that he’s not so sure he will loves him now. 

During the course of his press conference, Lowry revealed the depths of that struggle to his 2019 triumph, while also giving the impression of a golfer learning to embrace that struggle. 

“Sometimes when everything is going really well, I get complacent. Then all of a sudden, before I know it, I’m like three-over through five and start to have a panic because I feel like I’m going to do well.

“I feel like when things are not going well I think is when I’m at my best, or when I don’t feel like things are going well, like go back to 2019 here, I had a meltdown on the Wednesday because I thought I wasn’t going to go out and play well, but then that focuses me in a little bit more.

“If I can keep my complacency away and my expectation down, that’s when I’m at my best.” 

Rather than play the Scottish Open last week, Lowry has spent the last fortnight touring Ireland, playing all of Portmarnock, The Island, Baltray, Waterville, Hogs Head and Adare Manor beneath the blazing summer sun. This is anyone’s idea of a worthwhile break, though that creates one small problem.

Where’s the struggle? 

“I’ve had a great week. I’ve had a great week of practice. I just need to play shit for the next couple of days, and I’ll be all right.”