I wouldn’t have missed out on Galgorm, insists Lowry
Open champion is delighted to return as star attraction for Castle showpiece
DEFENDING Open champion Shane Lowry insists he was never going to miss the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open after it was rescheduled for Galgorm Castle ahead of his first return to Northern Ireland since his Open triumph at Royal Portrush last year.
The Clara man is the star name in the field this week and is hoping he can make it backto-back wins north of the border when he tees it up at the Co Antrim course today at 9.25am.
The event was ori ginally scheduled for Mount Juliet in Kilkenny in May, which Lowry had already signed up for.
However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, that was postponed and moved to Galgorm this week in place of the also postponed Ryder Cup in the US.
Because of the global pandemic, and due to the fact that it was a week after the US Open in New York, there were doubts over how strong the field would be, particularly when Rory Mcilroy, defending champion Jon Rahm and Graeme Mcdowell all announced they would not be flying back across the Atlantic to take their place in the field.
But Lowry has revealed he was always going to compete at his home Open once the new date was revealed.
The Offaly man duly arrived at Galgorm yesterday — along with the famous Open winner’s Claret Jug — ahead of today’s first round.
“I personally would have felt awful if I was sitting at home on my couch all week watching this on TV,” said the 33-year-old, who played a practice round alongside Ardglass man Cormac Sharvin yesterday evening.
“I would have felt all along that I should have been there. I think I will always be here — I can’t see myself ever not playing an Irish Open, that’s just the person that I am.”
Jonathan Caldwell (Clandeboye) leads off the Northern Irish trio competing in the event at 10.50am this morning , followed by amateur Tom Mckibbin (Holywood) at 12.30pm and Sharvin at 12.40pm.
PAUL Mcginley insists golf ’s governing bodies must “step up to the plate now” if they are to get a handle on the distance debate following Bryson Dechambeau’s utter destruction of Winged Foot at the US Open.
The Dubliner (51) does not believe that it was a watershed week for golf, but he does see it as confirmation that it’s time the R&A and the USGA sat down with the manufacturers to find a solution.
“They have got to step up to the plate now!” Mcginley said of the R&A and the USGA. “And they have got big issues to deal with.
“They have done massive research over the last two years and come out and said yes, there are some issues we need to address. We’re waiting now for six months to hear what they have to say.
“Last week was not a tipping point but it highlighted what’s happened in the last decade and that’s that big hitting is absolutely dominating the top of the game. If you’re not a big hitter, you have got little or no chance of competing at the top level.
“I think what Bryson did last week was highlight it because he did it at the US Open and went to historically the toughest test of all and said I am going to basically roughshod my way through this and hit it as far as I can and work it out from there.
“He took the modern game approach to a US Open set up and bludgeoned it, but anybody who has been watching the game for the last 10 years knows that’s what the top players have been doing.
“That’s how Rory plays. He dominates off the tee. That’s why he’s been so brilliant. Take away his ability to hit the ball so long and so straight and it’s a different game.
“Look at Bryson, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson; it’s one big hitter after another. I went through my stats last year, and of the top 10 players in the world, only one was ranked in the top 100 in driving accuracy.
“And that was Jon Rahm, and he was around 88th or 89th. The rest were all outside the top 100.”
Mcginley believes the governing bodies need to get the poachers to turn gamekeeper and hire the mathematical scientists that are selling data and research to the players.
Mark Broadie is a scientist, a researcher, a mathematical scientist from Colombia University, an Ivy League school over in New York,” he said. “If I were the R&A, I would employ Mark Broadie and 15th Club and Stroke Average and say, help me out and tell me what we need to do.”
Graeme Mcdowell doffed his cap to Dechambeau as he prepared to defend his title in the Corales Puntacana Resort & Club Championship in the Dominican Republic and insisted that golf didn’t need to rein in equipment or the ball.
But Mcginley knows they ruling bodies need to bring the manufacturers, not just the players, inside the tent if the likes of McDowell are ever to compete again. “The odds are very much against Graeme competing on the big stage now because the guys hit it so far past him,” Mcginley said.
“The dynamics of golf are different to a lot of other sports. The players are incredibly powerful. They have a powerful voice.
“So do you really think that the top players in the world are going to endorse changes to equipment? Because that equipment is what is giving them a competitive advantage.
“Are turkeys going to vote for Christmas? Are they all going to say the R&A and the USGA have to change the clubs? No.”
Bar setting a maximum height for golf tees to stop players launching balls in the stratosphere, it will take co-operation between the governing bodies and the manufacturers to bring about change.
“I would be employing these mathematicians and taking the lead from them as to what they should be doing because at the moment they are not doing that,” he said. “And I would also be embracing the manufactures in a collective way and doing the right thing for the game and embracing the manufacturers rather than keeping them as outsiders.
“I know, for example, that the head of Taylormade has not been communicated with. Why not? We are all in this together and want to drive it forward.
“There is, of course, a commercial reality for what they have to do in terms of sales, but let’s not keep them on the outside, let’s keep them on the inside and do it within the game. Players included.”
Allianz brand ambassador Paul Mcginley was speaking at the launch of Leaders Lounge, a Titan Experience Property proudly supported by Allianz Ireland. A virtual event bringing Mcginley, Jim Gavin and Stuart Lancaster together to share their leadership experience, Leaders Lounge takes place November 3rd. Visit titan.leadersloungelive.com for information