How does it feel? Unreal

BRENDAN Lowry thought his son might one day play in front of thousands of screaming fans at Croke Park in Dublin, where he and his two brothers helped lead his team to victory in the 1982 Gaelic football championships.

He had a footballer’s build, after all, and the game was the family’s sport.

Shane Lowry liked golf better. But the father got the part about playing in front of thousands of screaming fans right.

Another big win for the Irish at the British Open.

Tears for everyone around — and a day unlike any Brendan Lowry ever experienced on the pitch.

“Nothing like that,” he said as his son was walking down the final fairway. “This is so much better.”

Lowry led the cheers from a portal off the 18th green Sunday as his son came into view, emerging from a swarm of fans rushing up the fairway at Royal Portrush.

He threw both arms up in the air in celebration, tears welling up in his eyes.

Around him, other family members shed some tears of their own.

There was so much crying going on that former Open champion Padraig Harrington - who made sure he was on hand along with Graeme McDowell to celebrate his fellow Irishman — nearly broke down himself.

“I’m going to start crying,” Harrington said.

They were tears of joy for a player everyone seems to love. And they were tears of happiness for a country in a complicated relationship with its northern neighbor.

Three Northern Irish players started the first Open here in 68 years as both sentimental and betting favorites.

When it finished on a soggy and windy day, an Irishman from about four hours away was the winner — and a wildly popular one at that.

“I know they treated Shane like one of their own,” said McDowell, who grew up playing in Portrush.

About the only one not crying was the winner, who hugged his wife and young daughter, then walked off the green into an embrace with his father.

“Unreal,” Lowry kept repeating as he hugged family and friends. “Unreal.” _