Shane Lowry: ‘I'm definitely close to winning again’
Shane Lowry comes into this week’s Irish Open hoping that to build on his performance at the Player’s Championship.
He recorded a record-breaking back nine on the opening day to put himself in the top ten on the leaderboard, but eventually finished in a share of 16th place.
He was asked today if he was pleased with his form coming into the event at the K Club.
“Yeah, if you look at it, I probably played 68 holes really good and just the first four holes on Saturday, kind of being with the world No. 1, trying to chase him down and then getting off to a surly start is not easy,” he answered.
Like many players, Lowry struggled with the speed of the greens in Sawgrass on the third day.
“Just the greens, the Tour, the course got away from them. They apologised to all the players afterwards that evening. You know, that's the way it is.”
“I'm not making any excuses for me. Like you know, if we had of known that the greens were going to be like that going out, I think it would have been a little bit different and people wouldn't have been as surprised or the scores mightn't have been as bad. But the putting green was maybe three or four feet slower than the greens on the course, so it was a little bit difficult.
He added: “But still a good week. Like I said, a good finish, felt like I played really well.”
The Offaly golfer, now ranked 35 in the world, believes he is close to another win.
“A few times this season, I've been up there, Augusta, Phoenix, Honda last week,” he said.
“A few tournaments I've been there or thereabouts going into weekends and I just kind of fell away a little bit. I think if I can put four rounds together is the big thing.
“I was in the last group on Saturday. I learn a lot from those situations and take them forward with me and hopefully I can win them in those situations and I can do a little bit better.”
But he acknowledged consistency over a full tournament would be key to getting results.
“My bad rounds are probably not good enough. Albeit, I feel like the courses I've been playing have been very tough. But when you play average, you do badly, like that's the way it is over there. The courses we're playing are a lot tougher than what I was used to in previous years.
“My average golf is maybe just one or two shots worse than it needs to be, but my good golf is definitely good enough. So if I can just put four rounds together, I'm definitely close to winning again.
"I feel, if you look at I went there at the Masters, good Thursday, average Friday, but I was still there come the weekend, and you can really learn from putting yourself in those situations.”
