‘It’s strange’, says Lowry as he tees up in Ohio rather than in Kent
● Irishman should have been defending Claret Jug this week but is facing long wait
He should have been sitting in the interview area in the Open Championship media centre at Royal St George’s in Kent in front of a packed house.
Instead, Shane Lowry found himself looking at a solitary camera with hardly anyone in the room as he took part in a Zoom call for the Memorial Tournament in Columbus, Ohio.
Lowry’s Claret Jug title defence has been put on hold until next July after the R&A cancelled this year’s Open due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s the first time the game’s oldest major is not taking place since 1945, leaving the Irishman as the longest Open champion since Englishman Dick Burton held the title between 1939 and 1946.
“I wouldn’t say it’s bittersweet, but it is strange,” admitted Lowry as he prepared to tee up in a PGA Tour event in the middle of the US instead of a major on the Kent coast.
“I don’t really dwell on things too much that happen, so it is what it is right now, and we kind of have to deal with the cards we’re given. We’re certainly not in control of what’s happening in the world at the minute. Obviously I’d love to be at St George’s this week defending.
“I’d love if we were playing in front of 40,000 or 50,000 people this week. I’d love, like everybody in the world, if things were back to normal, but they’re not, and we kind of have to get on with that.”
Lowry raised a roar at Royal Portrush that carried across the Irish Sea as he landed a brilliant six-shot victory in the R&A event on the Antrim coast. “Every year you get to play in the Open, it’s special,” he added in reply to being asked what he’ll feel he’s missing this week. “I’ve never played in the Open at St George’s, so that would have been different this year.
“But just going back and giving back the Claret Jug and just doing the little things like that. I think just competing in one of the biggest tournaments in the world.
“Look, I miss the crowds, you miss the kind of buzz, the adrenaline you get from that, and I miss all that. I miss being announced on the first tee as defending champion, but I’m sure I’ll get that next year. So everything that I miss or that I won’t get to do this week, I’m sure I’ll get to do next year.”
Before leaving his home in Florida for this week’s event at Muirfield Village, Lowry
“I don’t really dwell on things too much that happen, so it is what it is right now, and we kind of have to deal with the cards we’re given”
SHANE LOWRY
enjoyed a timely reminder of the week he became Ireland’s newest major champion.
“I was sitting in the house yesterday evening, and I was flicking through the channels, and next thing The Golf Channel popped up and they were showing the final round,” he said, smiling. “I didn’t stay up late enough to watch it all, but I did watch a little bit of it, and yeah, and just cool looking back on it. I think my dad probably watches it every day. He probably sits at home most nights and watches it.”
A year later than scheduled, St Andrews will host the 150th Open in 2022. Earlier in the week, three-time winner Gary Player said he fears the Old Course will be shown to be “obsolete” by big-hitters like Bryson Dechambeau.
“I’m not really worried for the game because I think you still need to be very skilful,” said Lowry. “I think Bryson for the last few years has been a top-five player in the world anyway. It’s just he’s finding a different way to get the ball from A to B and get the ball in the hole. It’ll be interesting to see if anybody else tries to do it.
“I think the worst thing people can do is try and make golf courses longer. I just think they need to make them harder, because, to make them longer, it just plays into the long hitters’ hands.
“The way I would like to see it curtailed would be to make golf courses harder, and when we do get to the majors like the US Open, it’ll be interesting to see how Bryson, who has had a great run since he started back and he started doing all this, does then.”