Shane Lowry will proudly defend Abu Dhabi’s Falcon trophy and The Open Championship’s claret jug in 2020 but it’s a gold cup commissioned by Samuel Ryder in 1927 that has the Irishman fizzing for the new season

By Kent Gray
Like legions of juniors before him and doubtless countless more plotting future fame and fortune, Shane Lowry vividly recalls standing on practice greens thinking “this one for The Open”

Unlike most, the Esker Hills Golf Club prodigy was already hinting at the rare talent required to turn such fanciful dreams into reality, raw potential that turned to irrefutable proof when he won the 2009 Irish Open to become just the third amateur to win on the European Tour.

Fast forward a topsy-turvy decade on from that unforgettable Baltray breakthrough and, as it transpires, the Irishman didn’t have “this one for the Open”, rather five putts up his sleeve courtesy after a dream weekend at Royal Portrush.

It also turns out the relative ease with which he claimed the claret jug wasn’t the only part of the “dream come true” that wasn’t exactly how he’d imagined it all those years earlier as a junior. Yes, becoming the ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’ changed Lowry’s life but five months on he feels, strangely, kind of normal.

“The incredible thing is, since The Open, I actually don’t feel any different. If you had asked me before, were things going to change and would you feel different, I would have said yes,” Lowry said.

“But honestly, I don’t feel like it’s changed me in any way. It’s obviously changed my career path a little bit, but as a person, I don’t feel any different.”

Don’t get County Offaly’s new favourite son wrong. Sunday, July 21, 2019, will take some topping after he,waltzed to an eventual six-stroke victory over Tommy Fleetwood to earn the enteral adoration of his countrymen. He loved the whirlwind, week-long party that ensued – “to be honest, I didn’t drink that much…I wanted to soak it all in” – and to this day can’t help reflecting back every now and then.

“I stood on the first tee today, in the Pro-Am, and the Claret Jug is on the first tee,” Lowry said on the Tuesday of the recent DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates. “I walk down the fairway, I said to the lad, Neil [Manchip], my coach and Bo [caddie Bo Martin] was there, and I said, kind of just take it for granted, don’t you, that it’s just sitting there and it’s mine.”

Lowry’s name is forever etched in history but know that the 32-year-old is future-focused. With the Ryder Cup on the horizon, there’s no time to look back even though there’ll undoubtedly be reminders as he begins his defence of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Jan. 16 – a replica of The Open trophy normally does the rounds at Abu Dhabi Golf Club given the tournament’s $7 million Rolex Series status. He’ll also try his dandiest not to give the real claret jug back for good at Royal St George’s in July.

“The one thing that’s gotten me over the few months since The Open is when you have bad days and you’re shooting bad scores, people saying to you, ‘You won The Open, it doesn’t matter.’ But it does matter. Every day it matters to me. I want to shoot the best score I can and I want to be the best player I can be every day.”

That made November’s DP World Tour Championship, where Lowry went into the week with an outside chance to cap 2019 by becoming European No.1, doubly frustrating.

Lowry needed to win and for then order-of-merit leader Bernd Wiesberger to struggle on Earth. The Austrian sadly kept his end of an unwitting bargain, finishing T-28, but Lowry never recovered from an opening, one-over 73 at JGE, eventually placing T-12 and fourth overall in the Race to Dubai behind Jon Rahm, Fleetwood and Wiesberger.

As much as he’d love to have won the Race to Dubai, the Ryder Cup ranking points he left on Earth irk nearly as much. Making sure he is on the plane to Wisconsin for September’s biennial matches against the U.S. is something Lowry began plotting long before he won the Open and even before he showed up in Abu Dhabi last January with his tail between his legs after losing his PGA Tour card at the end of 2018.

“I’d give anything to make it [to Whistling Straits],” Lowry said in a recent interview with Golf Digest contributing editor John Huggan. “I like to think I’ll be good in the team room. I think I’d be happy in all the formats. My short game makes me useful in foursomes, and I make a lot of birdies, which is good in fourball play. I have what it takes to be a Ryder Cup player. I should have made it in 2016. I messed up the last month when all I had to do was play half decent.”

Lowry is determined to avoid a repeat in 2020. He’s certainly not relying on a captain’s pick from Pádraig Harrington, admitting his close relationship with the European captain is a double-edged sword.

“It’s like if your Dad is the manager of your team. It can make things harder for you.”

Rather, Lowry is determined to automatically qualify via the European Points list (four players via Race to Dubai points from Sept. 19, 2019 to Sept. 13, 2020) or World Points List (five players via OWGR points in the same period). He was 33rd on the European list heading to Abu Dhabi and 21st on the World list so has work to do. Thankfully, the world No.19 can plot a schedule where both varieties of ranking points are in plentiful supply.

Lowry turned down invites to the Australian Open and Hero World Challenge in December, electing instead to shut his season down after the Race to Dubai decider and recharge for the start of 2020 in the UAE capital and King Abdullah Economic City a fortnight later for the Saudi International.

In one breath, he doesn’t expect any issues resetting emotionally after the great year that was, before giving it some more thought.

“Look, I’ve never been in this situation. I’ve never won a major before. This is my first time. It’s all new. It’s all learning. As long as I learn and keep going and keep moving forward, I’m happy enough.”

Lowry will be delighted if he can come close to replicating last season in Abu Dhabi. He opened 2019 with a flawless 62 – joining Henrik Stenson in the history books 14 years after the Swede set the National course record in the third round of the inaugural Abu Dhabi championship in 2006 – before hanging on to a wire-to-wire victory despite a rollercoaster final round battle with Richard Stern. Lowry needed a two-putt birdie to close it out with a one-under 71 to finish -18, one ahead of Stern after the South African had cut Lowry’s three stroke through 54 holes to nothing inside three holes of the final round.

Like Abu Dhabi, Lowry was proud of the mental fortitude he displayed at Portrush where he rated his final round 72 in wild County Antrim weather even more highly than the Saturday 63 that made the 148th Open his to lose. Still, it’s something he’s working on, as he eluded too after losing a practice round haggle with Rory McIlroy at JGE in November.

“Any part of his game that I would want? Be nice to be playing from 340 yards in the middle of the fairway on every hole,” Lowry said to laughs from the gathered media. “But I think the one thing that he’s got, I think his carefree attitude, the way he plays the game. I know he obviously does care about it but just the way he looks, how he goes about his business. I’d love to be able to have that week-in and week-out. That’s what most impressed me is how well he goes after bad shots and stuff like that.

“I think my game holds up under a lot of pressure, and it has done this year. Mentally, when I’m on, I’m really good. So it’s just about getting mentally in that zone more weeks every year.”

And so, the search for consistency that started on a pitch and putt course before Lowry graduated to the Christy O’ Connor Jnr-designed Esker Hills G.C. in Tullamore, resumes.

“I think I’ve shown this year [2019] what I have is good enough obviously when it’s good. Every day I go out there, I’m trying to get better. I’m trying to sharpen up my game and trying to become more consistent. It’s not as easy as thinking, right, I want to be more consistent and being able to go out and shoot 68 every day. You have to work for what you get.”

A lot of hard work and a little visualisation can go a long way. Here’s hoping Lowry starts thinking “this one for the Ryder Cup” when he hits the practice green in 2020.