The healing process is all but over. The wounds are not so raw any more for Shane Lowry, even if scar tissue – of a mental kind – from his US Open travails will serve as a reminder and, quite possibly, as an incentive in this 145th edition of the British Open.
For sure, there were no further post-mortems here from the Offalyman on the eve of this championship. The opposite, if anything, as he joked, quipped and occasionally put his foot in his mouth in a good-natured way that had the belly laughs coming quick and fast.
Of his pairing with Jordan Spieth and Justin Rose: "I have a really good group, and I'm looking forward to that. I can't wait. That's where I want to be. I've been in plenty of shitty groups over the years, so with all due respect to the golfers, I shouldn't say that, should I? But you know what I mean. I've been like last-off and first-off. I don't mean the players I was playing with, I meant the tee times more. God!"
Of his superstitions: “I carry a marker with a shamrock on it that I use that my wife got for me last year. She got me one last year and I lost it, and I didn’t hit a shot for about three months. So she got me another one, and I’m doing okay again
Of that fall-out from the US Open: “I’m well and truly over it. My God, I’m much further along in my career. Before the US Open I was nowhere near the Ryder Cup team. Now, I’ve put myself in the reckoning for it. I’m well up [the rankings]. I’m into the FedEx Cup definitely now. I’m moving back up the world rankings. So, it’s all positive.”
Certainly, he’s feeling very much at home. He’s staying in a rented house close to the links with his dad Brendan, brother Alan, an uncle and cousins. “My dad’s been busy cooking breakfast every morning. No chef this week. He’s the chef.”
In practice, he has played rounds with Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell and Lowry has plotted a way to take on the links that will have him again contending in a Major championship. One of the keys will be getting his putter to work its magic; the other will be managing his own expectations as much as those of others.
The cut
In his two tournaments since finishing runner-up to
Dustin Johnson
at Oakmont, Lowry finished off the pace in his defence of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and missed the cut at the Scottish Open where disruptive 40 miles-an-hour winds put an end to his bid before it ever got properly started.
“I probably have been expecting a bit too much of myself, trying too hard, trying to get up to the top of the leaderboard too quickly and just not staying patient,” admitted Lowry, who added: “I feel like when you are playing with good players, they drag you along with them. Hopefully we can drag each other along and shoot good scores. . . It’ll be nice to go out early and try to shoot a score.”
Sounds like a plan.
