Shane Lowry found himself handed a victory trophy before hitting a shot on the opening day of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
On the back of capturing the 2019 Open Championship, Lowry was later that year voted by the Association of Golf Writers (AGW) their ‘Golfer of the Year’.
As has been customary since the first award in 1951, Lowry was supposed to be formally presented with the trophy at last year’s Open Championship at Royal St. George’s in Kent.
However, the trophy has been in the London offices of IMG since the start of the coronavirus lockdown as it had been presented to 2018 Open winner Francesco Molinari at the 2019 Open at Portrush.
Shane Lowry all smiles before tee-off in being handed the AGWs ‘Golf Writers’ trophy after being awarded 2019 AGW ‘Golfer of the Year’ (Photo – Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)
Molinari’s an IMG client and his manager had been safe-keeping the trophy and it was not to just prior to Christmas the trophy finally could be retrieved and then engraved and handed to Lowry in Dubai.
“It’s a lovely trophy and a great honour, but looking at the names of the guys who’ve won it before me I see my fellow Irish Rory McIlroy there three times, and Padraig Harrington twice,” said Lowry who went out to post a two-under par 70.
“So, I’d better win at least once more to get some sort of parity – although three more would be better so I could have the Irish bragging rights!”
South African Richard Sterne grabbed nine birdies in an eight-under par 64 and with Sergio Garcia, and winner of the Dubai event in 2017 and just two months before also capturing the Masters, signing for a 66 to be sharing third.
Lowry’s round was a mix of four birdies and two bogeys, and fighting back from back-to-back bogeys at 15 and 16 to birdie his closing two holes.
“Pretty good,” was Lowry’s assessment of his opening day’s work.
“I played nice, should’ve been better to be honest. You play the front nine around here in two-under and you should be able to shoot a really good score after that because you have three par-5s on the back nine. I’d a couple of bad holes on 15 and 16 but I finished very well so I’m happy enough.
“It would’ve been disappointing not to shoot under par the way I played. You know, after last week I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence coming into this week so I’m happy to be able to shoot a decent number and hopefully I can go out tomorrow morning in some nice conditions and shoot a better score again.”
Lowry made the hour’s journey from last week’s Tour stop in Abu Dhabi looking to make amends in missing the cut and looking also to draw a T11th and T12th in his past two Dubai showings.
As well, Lowry needs to start adding points to his Ryder Cup selection goal.
“I lacked a bit of confidence after last week but I don’t think I played too badly. I’d a couple of bad holes [in Abu Dhabi] but that’s the way it goes in the first tournament of the year,” Lowry added.
“I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing. I’ve a new driver in the bag and I’m still kinda trying to fall in love with it… trying to get used to it, but I hit a couple of really good drives at the end which I was happy with so hopefully that’s a sign of things to come tomorrow.”
Padraig Harrington was rock-solid signing for a 71 while Graeme McDowell struggled with a disappointing 76 to be well down the board already at four-over par.
