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Lowry celebrates with wife Wendy Honner and daughter Iris after winning the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship last Saturday.
By John Tully-Jackson
Shane Lowry doesn’t want to let go of the feeling of last week, but can’t wait for this week to get started.
Lowry returns to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic fresh off nabbing a Falcon down the road at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, and is trying to savour that ‘I just won over a million euros’ feeling.
“I suppose it’s been a bit of a whirlwind couple of days. I’m obviously very happy to have won again. Really enjoyed the last couple days and I’m going to try and enjoy this week as much as I can,” he said.
“Been a while since I’ve won, so it’s kind of — yeah, waking up the last couple of mornings, definitely the morning after you won when you wake up is pretty nice that feeling. It’s just something that you would like to just hold and keep with you forever. It’s been great.”
Lowry has an affinity for this part of the world and has shown how comfortable he is with his play, carding a course record equalling 62 in the opening round last week.
“I love coming to Dubai. Almost have my family holiday here a little bit. It’s just a great part of the world, great place to play golf. It’s always beautiful and always a few Paddies watching, as well. It’s nice.”
Despite his love of all things Dubai, it is five years since the newly installed World No. 41 pegged it up on the Majlis in the oldest European Tour event in the Middle East. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and it certainly seems to be the case for the Rolex Series’ newest champ.
“I haven’t played here since 2014, and I’m actually looking forward to getting out and playing. From what I can remember, it suits a left-to-right shot, which is what I have. If I keep playing with a bit of confidence, see what happens.”
But it won’t be easy for the man from County Offaly to make it to the top two weeks on the trot. The 30th playing of the ‘Major of the Middle East’ boasts a strong field including some of the Tour’s top dogs, and American drawcard – and scientific journalist baffler -Bryson DeChambeau.
Another man standing in the way of Lowry’s back-to-back W bid is defending champion Haotong Li. The Chinaman is looking forward to trying to defend a title for the second time after his Volvo China Open win in 2016, which he followed with a T-11 finish the following year.
The 23-year-old was by no means handed the victory last year, engaging in an electric to-and-fro with none other than Rory McIlroy.
“At that time, I felt like if I just got beat from Rory, it’s fine. It’s not a big deal. If I got beat from someone worse than me, I’m probably going to feel bad,” he said with a chortle.
“I’ve been playing solid all week that week, and yesterday I did a little bit of practice on the back nine. Pretty much every hole, I can still remember every shot from the exact point. It’s such a great memory.”
On the 18th Li was left with a four-footer for victory after sinking a monster from off the green at 15. Even with the ball clearly rolling well off the blade, theres is no such thing as an easy putt for a championship.
“That was more than four foot. It’s like 12-foot. And my caddie said I was outside left. I said no, it’s inside left. I mean, just putt that ball, and if not in, whatever, playoff, finish second’s fine. It was a great feeling and pretty much got a lot of good things going from there.”
