Lowry signs up for Irish Open after securing his FedEx Cup place
Lowry puts his name down for September’s Irish Open
SHANE Lowry has confirmed his intention to play in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in Galgorm Castle next month.
The Open champion has included the deferred tournament on his revised autumn itinerary, and his presence in Ballymena will be a massive draw.
Asked on Sunday at the close of the Wyndham Championship if he would tee it up in Galgorm, Lowry said, ‘That’s the plan. I’m actually going back to Ireland that week anyway, after the US Open.’
The decision of the European Tour chiefs yesterday to move the Scottish Open and BMW PGA Championship forward a week to follow the Irish Open, could encourage more of Europe’s top players to take in the three-week swing.
Lowry, 33, will start one of the favourites in his bid to win the Irish Open as a professional, 11 years after his success as an amateur at Baltray.
‘I’ve never been there (Galgorm). I’ve heard it’s nice, heard it’s a lovely hotel and good golf course. We’ll be in the European Tour bubble, that’s a bit tighter than this one over here.’
For the moment, Lowry’s focus is on the first leg of the FedEx Cup play-offs, the Northern Trust event in Norton, Massachusetts, this week.
He secured the 122nd place of the 125 available on the back of a gritty closing 67 in Greensboro, where he admitted to tension coming down the stretch.
‘You look at what I’ve achieved in the last year or two, stuff like that shouldn’t really be as stressful as it was, but it was. It’s a big deal. The last few holes, it was almost like, you know, you’re playing on the cut mark. It was strange.’
Lowry had to get up and down from 153 yards for par on the 18th to be sure of making the top 125 – he was no stranger to the challenge.
‘I had a similar situation here three years ago where I needed to make birdie on the last to get in and I had the exact same shot this time as I had then. I hit a wedge to about six feet, so that was nice.’
Lowry inched from 131st to 122nd in the standings to make the first leg of the play-offs but will have to produce something special in Boston if he’s to jump into the top 70 in the standings and make the BMW Championship in Olympia Fields the following week. ‘Obviously, the goal would be to make Chicago. Then the goal from there is to make it to East Lake (Tour Championship), but that would be a hell of a three weeks.
‘I need to do something very special. I feel like I’m playing good golf but if I’m going to try and compete in the next few events, I need to start driving the ball a little bit better than I have been.’
The Offalyman’s recent form has hinted that a big week is not far away.
‘I played lovely in Memphis and then I went to the PGA, sort of a little bit of expectation on me. For 27 holes, I think I was four under and flying. Then I just kind of let it slip away.
‘I didn’t drive the ball that well over the weekend and it kind of stayed with me this week.’
Lowry won $64,320 for tying 23rd behind shock Wyndham winner Jim Herman, who carded 61 and 63 over the weekend. With a high finish of sixth, Lowry banked $781,326 for his 12 PGA Tour events.
Seamus Power, two shots behind Lowry in joint 27th, received a cheque for $46,720.
It was his third highest finish of the year in which he won €351,069 and finished 151st in the FedEx Cup standings.
Because of the Covid-19 disruption to the Tour schedule, all players exempt in 2019-20 are exempt again for the 2020-21 season, which starts next month after the FedEx Cup final in Atlanta.
On the Champions Tour, Darren Clarke was tied 23rd behind Jerry Kelly in the Senior Players Championship in Akron, Ohio, on Sunday. Miguel Angel Jimenez and Colin Montgomerie were joint third, three shots back of Kelly.