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THE 148TH OPENJuly 20, 2019Shane LowryPortrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom MIKE WOODCOCK: We're joined by the leader after the third round, Shane Lowry. Shane, you've got a four-shot lead now after an 8-under par, 63 today. Fantastic round. Have you ever had a noise like that at a golf event? SHANE LOWRY: No. Honestly, that's the most incredible day I've ever had on the golf course. I honestly can't explain what it was like. I suppose the only way I can describe it is, I'm not sure, but hopefully tomorrow, I said to Bo walking off the 17th tee, We might never have a day like this on the golf course again. So let's enjoy this next half hour. You know what I mean? And that's what I did. The crowd was incredible. I just can't believe what it was like. I can imagine it was quite difficult for J.B. to play with that. But, yeah, I found it okay, anyway. MIKE WOODCOCK: Amongst other things you've set the 54-hole lead for the championship of 197. That's a fantastic score. With that backing you've got, it must give you a lot of confidence going into the final round tomorrow. SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I know tomorrow is going to be a difficult day. I know there's some bad weather coming in. But, look, I'm in a good position and I just have to do what I've been doing all year and hit the reset button tonight and go out there and shoot as good a score as I can tomorrow. And hopefully that's good enough tomorrow evening. Q. How are you going to keep your level of excitement down when that level of excitement is happening out there? SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, you know, I thought I dealt with it very well today. Honestly, walking from the green to the next tee, the people are literally a yard away from you roaring in your face as loud as they can. If you have to get up and hit a drive down a tight fairway, it's fairly difficult. I thought I dealt with it very well today and hopefully I do the same tomorrow. Q. I know the support has been amazing, I just wonder entering this week there was so much talk about Rory and Graeme and even Darren. Did you feel a little bit like the forgotten Irishman in the group? SHANE LOWRY: No, not at all. Like, the guys are from here. I grew up four hours away. I kind of felt like I could come here and come under the radar a little bit, that's what was nice about this week. But obviously I'm not quite under the radar anymore. But hopefully -- I didn't feel like I was the forgotten Irishman, but hopefully I'm the one they're talking about tomorrow evening. Q. I remember speaking to you just after Oakmont or -- SHANE LOWRY: I was waiting for that. (Laughter.) Q. Specifically, you had said that Darren Clarke was one of the first to speak to you afterwards and his advice was that you get over it again. How hard was it to watch at the time and how good would it be to use that at his home course? SHANE LOWRY: Look, I suppose, let's get off onto the Open now. I said to Bo when I finished, looked at the leaderboard, four ahead, I said to Bo, at least I won't have to answer any questions about Oakmont, I'm four ahead going into the final round of a major. Look, obviously I learned a lot that day. I learned a lot about myself at Oakmont. I'm going to learn a lot about myself tomorrow. I feel like, obviously, look, tomorrow is a huge day in my career. But I don't think -- not that it -- it doesn't mean maybe -- how do I explain this? It probably doesn't mean as much to me as it did then, which is going to make it a little bit easier. I think I learned a few things that day about playing in the final round of a major with a lead, that you need to just hang in until the very last minute. You never know what can happen. And I'm going to do the same tomorrow. So like, that's a long time ago. I feel like I'm a different person. I don't think I'm a much different golfer, but I feel like I'm a different person now. I think that's what will help me tomorrow. Q. Have you ever played a round of golf like that, you seemed to be in the zone from the start? SHANE LOWRY: To be honest, I don't really remember much of the round. Obviously I played nice today. But it was one of those where it all happened so quickly. We spoke about that this morning, I spoke about it with my coach Neil, I said, We're going to get into the car and go to the golf course and before we know it, we'll be finished. That's it. I'm sitting here after shooting 63, which is incredible. And look, obviously, it is one of the best scores I've ever shot, but I think the golf course, we got very lucky with the weather today. The wind laid down and it played quite easy towards the end. The greens are perfect and we're playing links golf in no wind. It virtually had no real protection out there. If you were hitting decent shots you were getting good results. That's what happened today. Q. I know it's moved up a bit tomorrow to avoid the worst of the weather, but it's going to be rougher than it was today. The theory is that plays into your experience in links courses, bad weather. Do you think that way? Do you think that gives you an advantage? SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, but Tommy Fleetwood grew up in Southport, he's played in bad weather and bad conditions before. J.B. Holmes flights the ball lovely, he's pretty good. Brooks is there. No, there's a good leaderboard behind me. We'll see what happens. I don't know -- the times are earlier tomorrow, then, are they? That's nice. 3:50 tee time was a bit late today. But, yeah, look, I'm just going to go out there. I know it's going to rain. I know it's going to be difficult at times and I have just have to try and shoot the best score I can. Q. How important do you think it is to really embrace the moment in the sense that you talked very openly about not denying the obvious, you have this opportunity again? Did you learn the importance of that also at Oakmont? SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, because who knows when I'll be in this position again. So it's taken me three years to get back here. So, yeah, look, there's no point in saying to go out and enjoy myself tomorrow because it's going to be a very stressful and very difficult day. So I'm going to go out and just -- I'm going to take the good shots -- I'm going to take the bad shots on the chin and I'm going to take the good shots and try to capitalize on that. I'm just going to be myself and play my game and see where it leaves me. Q. Why do you think it doesn't mean as much to you now? SHANE LOWRY: When I said that, like it means an awful lot. Like this means an awful lot. Look, if I'm sitting here this time tomorrow evening it will be like one of the biggest things that ever happened to me, there's no denying that. But I just felt at the time in Oakmont my golf just meant a lot more to me back then, than it does now. I'm not saying that it doesn't mean everything, it's my career. But I've got certain things in my life that make it different. I've got family now. No matter what I shoot tomorrow my family will be waiting for me. At Abu Dhabi at the start of this year, four ahead going into the final round, I said to my wife, just have her there waiting for me when I finish, because no matter what happens I'm going to be either standing there with the trophy or it's going to be a disappointing day. And it's going to be the same thing tomorrow. Yeah, maybe that's why it doesn't -- it's weird to say it doesn't mean as much, because it's not far off. But if you know what I'm saying, that's kind of the way -- I don't really know what I'm saying, to be honest (laughter). It's been a long day, lads. You've got me. Q. J.B. can play very methodically out on the golf course, but that didn't seem to rattle you today. How are you able to handle that and stay focused on your game? SHANE LOWRY: We talked about it again. We talked about all the scenarios that could happen today. I know J.B. is quite a deliberate golfer. We were fine today. We kept up pace of play. And Tommy and Lee are quite quick. I was ready for it. And I think same conversations tomorrow morning, I think I'll be ready for tomorrow when it comes. Q. Can you tell us, did you do anything particular last night to bring yourself down? Will you do anything tonight to bring yourself down or do you not want to come down? SHANE LOWRY: I actually -- to bring myself down I watch myself on TV, I watch the highlights on BBC. No, we have a house this week. My wife and kid and my coach and a couple of friends if there. My brother is here tonight. No, we just do the same thing we do every night, watch TV. Q. What do you watch, the BBC, anything else? SHANE LOWRY: Be lying if I said Love Island (laughter). We've got a good Irishman in there. Q. That's not going to bring any man down, is it? SHANE LOWRY: No, look. Same thing as any other person my age. Just chill out, like do nothing. Lie back on the couch and watch TV. There's not much else on TV. So, yeah. Q. I imagine you've mentioned a role that Neil Manchip has played before the tournament and through the tournament. Can you talk about what he does in terms of getting your mind right? SHANE LOWRY: I think I find when we put everything out on the table and we talk about everything, scenarios, what could happen. And I think when I'm very open with him about how I'm feeling I think that's when I can get the best out of myself and I think that's what he does, he gets the best out of me that way by I suppose making me talk about how I'm feeling. And about, look, I said to him on the putting green this morning, I said I cannot wait to get this first tee shot out of the way. You know what I mean and that's just how I'm feeling. That's the way I like to do things. I like to -- when I'm nervous I like to talk about it. There's no point bottling it up. Because if I bottle it up I'm going to become too anxious or nervous. And there's been certain times in the past -- one particular moment I can remember and this kind of summarizes what kind of relationship we have, I needed a caddie for me in Valderrama, years ago. I was playing, had a chance to win the tournament, playing the 17th. We got down and did the number and I said to him, I'm absolutely shitting myself. And he said -- I don't know what he said, but obviously he was just like -- that's kind of the way it is. Like I like to talk about things. I'm not going to be sitting there tomorrow morning in the house in a corner trying not to think about the day ahead. I'll be talking about -- obviously I'll go to bed thinking about holding the Claret Jug tomorrow evening. It's only natural, isn't it? We're human. We're not robots. We can't not think about things. And when you try not to think about something you end up thinking about it more, so you might as well talk about it. So we talk about stuff. Talk about everything. Neil knows more about me than anyone. So we're very close. Q. Along those same lines, you and Bo don't seem like the matching outfit types, was that a coincidence? SHANE LOWRY: Big coincidence, yeah. Bo has been great for me over the last year. So, yeah, he's just -- it's like he's given me a new lease on life. He's so chilled. He's so relaxed. Maybe he isn't inside but he definitely comes across that way. And for him it's like Bo grew up about an hour and a half away in a place called Ardglass. Hopefully we can do something special and enjoy it together. Q. That shot in 16, today on Calamity on this occasion, how special is it? SHANE LOWRY: I'm not going to lie, I pushed it about five yards, ten yards. But it was a perfect 4-iron, to be honest. I knew I couldn't go long. I knew if I pushed it on to the flag that it would carry. I decided to hit a little fade up the green. It came -- the moment it came off the club face I knew it was pretty close. I thought it was close walking up there and it was about maybe 8 or 10 feet. And to roll the putt in was really nice, as well. That just -- every time I had a putt today I just wanted to hole it because I wanted to hear that roar, it was just incredible. It was an incredible day. Q. You might have answered this before in a couple of other press conferences, how many times have you played Portrush in the last year or so, and have you played it in the kind of weather that we expect tomorrow? SHANE LOWRY: I played it once about a month ago and the last time I played it I think was the Irish Open in 2012. So before this week. I played it in -- the Irish Open, 2012 I played it in the Saturday I played in the worse weather you've ever seen, me and Darren Clarke, Saturday morning, we were off early. That's the last time I played it in bad weather. Q. Obviously playing in bad weather your caddie is going to be very important. Just can you give us a little bit more of an insight into what Bo does for you, how he helps you, and can you also maybe look back on that Irish Open in 2009 playing with an Englishman in the final round and in really bad weather, too, and what you can draw from that? SHANE LOWRY: Obviously the caddie is going to be -- look, no matter what the weather is, the caddie is going to be huge tomorrow. He's going to play a big part in the day. Bo is like -- I find, like, I play golf now like there's no consequences, you know what I mean? Obviously there's big consequences tomorrow, but you need to play like -- hit shots like there's no consequence. Like, what's the worst thing that can happen? If I swing the club here and hit the ball, no matter where it goes, what is the worst thing that can happen to you? That's kind of the mindset he brings into it. That's when I play my best. That's the way I am. I think we gel together nicely that way. Did you ask something else about the weather? Q. Baltray. SHANE LOWRY: Baltray, that was '09, that was a long time ago. I used to be good in bad weather back then, but I don't play in bad weather anymore. I'll be grinding hard tomorrow and I'll be just trying to hit fairways and hit greens and hole the odd putt and see where it leaves me. MIKE WOODCOCK: Congratulations on a fantastic round and best of luck tomorrow. SHANE LOWRY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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