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Shane Lowry wins the Open Championship

Monday, 22 July 2019 07:11

Shane Lowry with the Claret Jug. Pic @TheOpen

Shane Lowry made history at Portrush yesterday.

The Offaly man was crowned the Open Champion, taking home the Claret Jug after finishing on 15 under par, 6 shots clear of his nearest rival Tommy Fleetwood.

On a day of terrible weather conditions, the 32 year old produced a solid one over par round of 72 to clinch his first major, banishing memories of the 2016 US Open in the process.

 

Lowry joins a prestigious list of Irish major winners, which include Padraig Harrington, Rory McIlroy, Fred Daly, Darren Clarke and Graeme McDowell. And he says he still can't quite believe what has happened. 

"I'm feeling unbelievably calm to be honest! It won't sink in for a few days. It feels incredible to be sitting here with this incredible trophy in front of me. I mean look at the names on it!

"I said it to Bo (his caddy Brian Martin) walking down 18 that I couldn't believe that it was me. I couldn't believe what was happening. I thought about it all day, but I didn't really let myself think about it until 17. As soon as I hit that tee shot I couldn't really lose a ball from there!"

Lowry received tremendous backing from the fans around Portrush all weekend, and he says it was a big factor in his win.

"Immense, wasn't it? I spotted a few people in the crowd from where I'm from, a lot of people made the last minute journey up here this morning. 

"They were great. I sometimes struggle to play in front of a home crowd, I have done in the past. Not in the last few days, I played lovely, obviously it's very nice."

The six stroke win looks, on paper at least, like a comfortable win. Lowry though says it wasn't quite like that.

"I hit a ropey tee shot on the first, the second shot didn't go as far as I thought it would. Then you're standing on the first green and Tommy [Fleetwood] has a great chance of birdie and I have a bogey putt from 8 feet - that's a potential three shot swing. But  he misses, I make it, it's only one shot and that settled me an awful lot.

"When I started to feel comfortable was after 14. I thought I played the last five holes incredibly well. I felt incredibly good. I felt like I was going to do it.

"I couldn't belive it was happening to me. It was very nice to have Paddy [Padraig Harrington] And G-Mac [Graeme McDowell] waiting for me at the back of the green. And to have all my friends and family, I walked around the corner to see where the flag was [on 18] and I spotted my family and I started welling up a little bit! Bo told me to catch a hold of myself, I still had to hit a shot!

"I walked down there and I tried to soak it in as much as I could. It was hard to soak it in, because it was so surreal!

"Look, I’m Irish. I grew up holing putts on the putting green back home to win the Open. It was always the Open, wasn’t it? I watched Paddy win his two Opens. I didn’t even know him back then. I’m obviously very good friends with him. Like you go into Paddy’s house and the Claret Jug is sitting on the kitchen table, and I’m going to have one on my kitchen table, as well! I said that to him, as well, that’s going to be quite nice."

It's a massive difference from Carnoustie 12 months ago, where Lowry failed to make the cut and was falling out of love with the sport.

"That just shows you how fickle golf is. Golf is a weird sport and you never know what’s around the corner, and that's why you need people to remind you of that, you need to just fight through the bad times. I sat in the car park in Carnoustie, almost a year ago right to this week, and I cried. Golf wasn’t my friend at the time. It was something that was becoming very stressful and it was weighing on me and I just didn’t like doing it. What a difference a year makes.”

What a difference indeed. Congratulations Shane Lowry, Open Champion 2019.

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