Struggling Shane in need of a major rethink
IT iS not only boxing where one round can change everything. Take the contrasting fortunes of dustin Johnson and Shane Lowry, the heavyweight contenders at the US Open a year ago.
With one round to go at Oakmont, Johnson was trailing Lowry by four shots and the American looked set to live up to his tag as the game’s nearly man once more. The irishman, meanwhile, appeared ready to win his first major and fulfil all the promise he showed back in the day when he carried the weight of expectation so well in winning the irish Open while still an amateur.
Yet it did not turn out that way. Johnson shot 69 to win and embarked on a stunning year of play that has seen him claim five more titles, notch five other top-three finishes and deservedly start as clear favourite to complete a successful defence of his title at Erin Hills this week.
As for Lowry, if ever a golfer could be said to be returning to the scene of his biggest disappointment desperate to draw a line under what happened, it is the personable 30-year-old from County Offaly.
He really hasn’t been the same golfer since he closed with a 76. Like any man in his position he talks about taking the positives out of what happened but, sadly, we are still waiting for evidence he has discovered any.
in the 22 events he has played since that fateful round, Lowry has missed six cuts and not mustered a single top-five finish to spiral all the way from 25th in the world to 69th.
‘Obviously, i was bitterly disappointed with what happened,’ said Lowry. ‘i don’t know if it caused my form to slip, but i suppose you go into the following majors, people are talking about you winning, and i’d never had that before.
‘You’ve also got your own expectations, and then i really wanted to make the Ryder Cup team and missed out on that as well. So yeah, i got to the end of last year and it was all a bit flat.’
At least there was some blissful relief in the early months of this year, as he became a father for the first time. Now it is back to the US Open, and a renewed determination to get going again on the course.
‘i got a little taste of being back in contention at the PGA at Wentworth where i finished sixth and i hope that proves the kick up the backside to get me going again,’ he said.
‘i can’t change what has happened over the last 12 months but i have a summer filled with big events where i can get my career going once more. Hopefully, one day i’ll be able to look back and just think of it all in terms of being a blip year. i know the game’s still in there somewhere.’ GIVEN the tortured build-up dominated by so many superstar withdrawals, it is a testament to the show that still took place in Rio last year that golf’s stay at the Olympics has now been extended until at least 2024. Considering that one Games will take place in Paris or Los Angeles, and the golf will be staged at Le Golf National — where the Ryder Cup will be played next year — or storied Riviera, no wonder the golf calendar is now currently being revised. Golf in the Olympics is quite plainly here to stay. ONE of the joys of the US Open is it really is open to all with sufficient nerve and ability. So while the big names will hog the headlines this week, the field also contains players from all parts of the British isles who have battled their way through a qualifying process involving 9,485 hopefuls in search of a career-defining week at Erin Hills.
Keep an eye out, therefore, for Bradley dredge from Wales, playing in his first US Open just shy of his 44th birthday; Richie Ramsay from Scotland, who competed in the 2007 edition as the US Amateur Champion but has not played in one since; Paul dunne from ireland, who led the 2015 Open at St Andrews after three rounds while still an amateur.
Then there is the English contingent — all 14 of them, would you believe, following Chris Wood’s lastgasp inclusion at the weekend after moving back into the world’s top 60.
Alongside the familiar names, there is the immensely promising 22-year-old Aaron Rai from Wolverhampton, who won the qualifying event at Walton Heath; Matt Wallace from Hertfordshire, who was playing on something called the Alps Tour this time last year, and Eddie Pepperell from Oxford, quietly rebuilding his career following a rough spell. Good luck to them all. Mid HERTS Golf Club, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary, has a unique link to the US Open. The first head pro and groundsman was Horace Rawlins, who then emigrated to America and became the first British golfer to win a major outside his homeland when he won the inaugural US Open in 1895. A statue will be unveiled in his honour during the club’s festivities next month.