Lowry A Different Player Since His Ryder Cup Debut, A Lot More Mature & Also Chuffed

1 week ago by 0

It came as no suprise Shane Lowry should be handed a third European Ryder Cup cap by 2025 team captain Luke Donald.

Lowry had qualified automatically for both the losing 2021 side but stormed into the 2023 team as an automatic selection but needed a nod from Donald to be assured of his place in the 2025 European Tour heading later this month to Bethpage Park Black.

Indeed, Lowry was the first of Donald’s six wildcard picks and among 11 of 12 players chosen to travel to New York who were members of Donald’s victorious Roman winning team.

Lowry of his joy in being honoured with a third straight European Team cap.

LOWRY: Obviously I’m chuffed. You know, it’s always a big part of my goals at the start of each year, especially a Ryder Cup year is to get on the team. I got pretty close to making the team this year. I was disappointed not to do that but obviously very happy that Luke gave me the call. Yeah, on the team again. So all roads lead to Bethpage now.

Q. Just when it comes to winning away, which is getting even harder it seems and the crowd is obviously a huge part of that, what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable from the crowd, and do you trust a New York crowd to stay the right side of that line?

SHANE LOWRY: Talking about acceptable, unacceptable I don’t think you can actually single things out. I feel like when you’re prepared for something, it’s much easier to handle it. So I think my first Ryder Cup away, I wasn’t really prepared for mentally what it was going to be like playing against 50,000 people along with the 12 guys# we’re actually playing against, you know, what that was
going to be like. When you hear cheers on the course, it’s# actually a bad thing at an away Ryder Cup, so stuff like that.
I honestly do feel like — and I know because I’ve not been a definite in the team over the last few months, I’m probably not as clued in as to plans Luke has in place for us going forward over the next few weeks. But I would imagine there’s going to be a lot of things done between now and the first tee shot on that Friday morning to get us ready for whatever is to come.
There’s been a lot of talk about what the crowds are going to be like and how bad they are going to be. But, hmmm, I don’t know, I think there’s going to be a lot of European fans there. I said it last week when I was asked about it, we play week-in, week-out in America. We all live in America, or most of us do, anyway, and we have all got a lot of fans in America. I don’t think they can turn on you that bad for one week, but that remains to be seen.

Q. From your own sporting family background and what team sports means to you, obviously it’s in the
DNA, and also in terms of this is now your third Ryder Cup, what can you bring to the team in terms of leadership?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, team sports is something I always grew up with, and obviously Gaelic football has had a huge
part to play in my life and my family life and my upbringing and I think that’s where I get my competitiveness from. I think I get that from my dad and what he was like as a player.

And what can I bring to the team? I think I bring — honestly, I think I bring a lot. But like a sense of, like, togetherness. I feel like I’m one of the players that I’m always in the team room. I’m always there. I’m always around. I enjoy the aspect of being around other peopl and getting everyone together and getting everyone to kind of open up and be themselves. You know, at the end of the day, we’re kind of all working towards one thing and that’s winning the Ryder Cup.

So yeah, I think I do bring a sense of, like, togetherness in the team room, and I feel like I’m someone that people can open up to and talk to, as well, if I’m needed.

Q. Just on the team, 11 of the 12 guys were there last time. What difference does that make to the taskn ahead this time, and do you feel that you guys should maybe be considering yourselves favourites rather than sort of having a bunker mentality of “Us Against the World” in an away match?

SHANE LOWRY: I think what’s great about 11 of the 12, and obviously Rasmus was there in a decent capacity last time as well. He spent a lot of time in the team room and a lot of time in and around us. I suppose they are thinking about having Rasmus there the last time is he’s going to play Ryder Cups in the future and they were right on that.

It’s great to have him here this time. Also, we have a lot of continuity like in the backroom setup as well, whether it be the captains, vice captains, and the people we’re using in the background, as well.

So I think it’s just going to be an easier kind of get together for the team when we all come together, we all feel as one pretty quickly. Whereas sometimes it can be kind of hard to do that when you play an individual sport all year to come together and all be one together quite soon. I think that’s what’s great about the continuity we have from the last one.

And as regards to us going in as favourites, I think no team is going to really go in as favourites for away Ryder Cup. Ithink it’s a hard thing to do. I think Rory hit the nail on the head at a press conference the last time. You know, but I think we’ll put in the work and we’ll put in the preparation over the next few weeks, and even though we might not go in as favourites, I’m sure that we’re going to believe that we’ll be able to do it.

Q. Just from a personal point of view, obviously it’s been a bit of a frustrating year for you with a couple near misses that were understandably hard to take. If you were part of a winning team, regardless of what you might do at Wentworth or Dubai, does that mean you could look back on this year as a pretty positive one?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it’s hard to explain sometimes and people might say it’s not the right way for me to think but honestly, I say it all the time. If I’m sitting there at the end of September with the Ryder Cup or whenever it finishes, I think it will be a good year regardless. I put a lot of eggs in# that basket, and that’s just the way I am. It’s a big, big part of my career. It’s a big part of my goals. Always has been. But yeah, if we’re sitting in New York on the Sunday night with the Ryder Cup in our team room, I’ll be a very happy man.

Q. You’ve spoken about the togetherness and coming together as one. Luke has a two-day trip planned after the BMW. What will that trip look like and how important is that?

SHANE LOWRY: I think it’s important and we showed how important it was the last time. I think we got together and we did our trip to Rome. Then when we arrived in Rome for the Ryder Cup, it felt like we had never been apart. It felt like we just sort of floated into the week and cruised into the week.

Yeah, it is a big part of it. Obviously to get to see the golf course outside of the mayhem of Ryder Cup week is very important as well. When you get to a Ryder Cup week, it’s just a bit different and it’s just not the same as a normal week. Practise rounds are a little bit more challenging than normal, and yeah, so it will be nice to see. I think we are playing a couple of rounds that week. It will be nice to see the golf course, and kind of figure out a game plan for how we are all going to play it. I’m sure by then we’ll know who we’re going to play with, or to a certain extent, anyway. But yeah, those trips are very, very important.

I can’t remember if there was another part to that question.

Q. What you thought that trip would look like in terms of obviously you all know each other quite well so there’s not much bonding that needs to go on but I presume it’s not all about the golf, that trip.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it’s about coming together and I’m sure there’s going to be certain things in place. Even some guys might change caddies over the last couple years.
Just getting everyone involved. It’s not only the players, making them feel like they are a team. It’s everyone. At the end of the day, the week of the Ryder Cup, it’s a lot more about the whole backroom team and getting everyone involved in making — it could be 40 or 50 people all making us feel like we’re one and having everyone working towards one goal, and that’s what I think those two
days will be great for.

Q. Your debut was in Whistling Straits in 2021, which was a strange Ryder Cup during COVID and obviously the restrictions of people traveling so there was very little European support. But I would imagine New York will be different because there’s a big Irish community in New York and Long Island. It will be different this time around, and I’m sure you’re looking forward to
that.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, Whistling Straits was a bit of an outlier where pretty much next to no European fans — I think I was asking somebody only the other day, on average, how many European fans turn away to an away Ryder Cup, and they were saying something along the lines of 15 percent. You’re still talking about 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 people a day will be cheering for you. So there will be pockets of European support that we will have and we will definitely need.

Yeah, it will be a bit different, and obviously I feel like I’m a different player than I was in 2021, a lot more mature and obviously got two Ryder Cups under my belt now. I feel like I said at the start, one of the first questions, I feel like we’ll be as prepared a team as ever was going to an away Ryder Cup. A lot of confidence comes from preparation, so the next few weeks, with all the work that’s going to go into it, I think that will build confidence week-by-week in the team and in your fellow teammates that we can actually pull this off.

Q. Just wonder what you expect from Bethpage when you get there for your reconnaissance mission. Do you expect there to be no rough and fast greens or will they just try and make it as birdieable as possible?

SHANE LOWRY: Historically that’s what the U.S. have tried to do with the golf courses. I played the PGA in 2019 and I do remember the course went quite difficult, but I don’t really remember much else about the course. I do remember it being long. So even if — I don’t know how short you can make it or how birdieable you can actually make the golf course or what they are going to do. So I think that’s what the two-day trip will help us with. Yeah, historically that’s what they have done and I wouldn’t be surprised if they did that again, but we’ll just have to wait
and see.



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