Rory McIlroy nudged Shane Lowry at a recent European Ryder Cup team gathering as footage of the 2006 football World Cup final was shown. “‘We watched that match together,’” Lowry says McIlroy reminded him. “I was like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Yeah, European Youths’ Team Championships. Sotogrande.’ From that to sitting at a Ryder Cup dinner, 19 years later is pretty cool.” Next stop, Bethpage.
Lowry has told his close friend that he envies him, in the nicest possible sense. The 38-year-old looked on with smiles, but green eyes, as McIlroy claimed the Masters – completing a career grand slam – and produced heroics to win a second Irish Open this month. “I said to him the other day, I am starting to get really jealous,” says Lowry. “I also said to him that I hope Irish people realise how lucky they are to have Rory at that level, coming back to play the Irish Open every year.
“He says, ‘Yeah, but how lucky are we to have that support?’ I was very jealous of the Masters, I was very jealous that Irish Open Sunday. I am happy for him, of course I am, but I want to achieve stuff myself.
“I want it so badly. I want everything, I want to achieve it all. If I was to pack it all in now, would I be happy with what I have? I have had a pretty good career. But do I want more? Absolutely. That is the reason to get up in the morning.” McIlroy thinks Lowry can be over hard on himself.
Lowry laughs when contemplating any interviews where McIlroy is not a key topic for discussion. He jabbed backon the Saturday evening at Augusta, when his pal’s Green Jacket quest was a mistimed line of questioning. “I get it, I totally get it,” Lowry says. “But I have just come off the course. The last thing I want to do is talk about another player doing what I am trying to do the next day.” Which is fair enough.
By 2007, Lowry and McIlroy were part of the Ireland side that triumphed in the European Amateur Team Championship at Western Gailes. Lowry, who beat Victor Dubuisson in the final, can reel off the others in that team without effort. Lowry and Ireland defended successfully in 2008.
“All these guys were great players,” Lowry says. “I never thought I was better than any of them. Amateur golf in Ireland was really popular because of Rory. I learned a lot from that, even playing in front of decent crowds.
“I had always looked at others as being better than me. That helped me. I wouldn’t say I played with a chip on my shoulder, but I played with that fear of not being good enough.
That sense still lingers despite Lowry sitting at the top of the game. “All the time,” he says. “You play with a fear of failure. The reason I get up and work every day is because I am afraid to fail. A fear of not being good enough. I don’t go to practise because I think I am good enough. I never play with loads of confidence.
“In that 2007 team, I was number four, five or six. I wasn’t even close to the top, I wasn’t part of any Walker Cup conversation. I took a lot of confidence from Western Gailes, went home and won the Irish Close Championship and started doing well abroad.
“I don’t think I ever realised how good I was and I was still so young. Enter tournament, play, if I didn’t win I just moved on to the next week. Then I get an invite to Baltray in 2009 and bang, there you go.” Lowry won that Irish Open when still an amateur.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry (right) careers have been closely linked and they enjoyed success for Europe in 2023’s Ryder Cup. Photograph: Zac Goodwin/PA
McIlroy is the golden boy of European, never mind Irish, golf, but glances through time link him intrinsically with Lowry. The pair diverged in 2007, when McIlroy made his Open debut and turned professional, but return to the Ryder Cup arena this week as hugely influential members of Team Europe. They possibly have a point to prove together; at Whistling Straits in 2021, a comprehensive Friday defeat by Tony Finau and Harris English was a miserable experience.
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“We weren’t even close to winning” says Lowry. “People say how great it is to make the team and all that, but there is no point in going then getting the shit beaten out of you. You want to go and win. It’s the same as qualifying for the Masters; there’s no point doing that then missing the cut.”
That last Ryder Cup on US territory wounded all in European colours. Lowry watched his compatriot and close friend Padraig Harrington heavily criticised for his approach to captaincy. “Brutal,” is the his assessment of what Harrington endured. “He has had such an amazing career, is such an amazing man, that it was harsh enough on him.”
The 38-year-old dismisses any notion of a Covid-affected away game hampering Europe in Wisconsin. “You don’t make excuses,” he says. “If you are standing there making excuses you are in the wrong game.
“It drove me on. Since then, my golf has been very consistent. I wanted to right that wrong and even more so this time, going away again even though we are now a totally different team.”
Lowry was married in New York. Any sense the Bethpage experience has him quaking in his shoes would be completely wrong. “We go there a couple of times a year. I am completely in love with New York, nothing but good experiences.
“This is an opportunity. A lot of people dwell on negatives; how tough it will be, how bad the crowd might be. How amazing an opportunity do we have here? We could write ourselves in history. I have won an Open, a Ryder Cup, my national open. If I was to add this to it, Jesus … I am a very lucky person to achieve what I have so far, but adding this would be amazing.”
