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ABU DHABI HSBC CHAMPIONSHIPJanuary 15, 2020Shane LowryAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates BRIONY CARLYON: I'm delighted to welcome back our defending champion of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship Presented by EGA, Shane Lowry. Welcome to the media center. SHANE LOWRY: Thank you. BRIONY CARLYON: Let's maybe take it back 12 months to your start of 2019 and how this event here, a win here sort of kick start quite a memorable season. SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I suppose it's amazing, the difference a year can make. Coming into this event last year, I was sort of maybe 80th in the world or something, and you know, I had not great form. I had been playing okay the few months previous, but not unbelievable, and for a couple years, and didn't know what 2019 was going to bring. You know what, I just did what I do, and tried my best and went out and gave it 100 percent the whole year. Very fortunately, it was obviously my best year-to-date. I couldn't really envisaged what happened. It was obviously really nice to get off to an unbelievable start here, winning one of the biggest events on Tour. This course, this tournament, against this field every year is a really, really difficult tournament to win, and it obviously kick-started an unbelievable season. BRIONY CARLYON: Coming back in 2020, do you set new goals, or what do you look to achieve in this event moving forwards. SHANE LOWRY: I think I might be silly -- I've set little goals. Obviously I have goals in my head. I don't write them down. I don't do any of that. So I have it in my head what I want to achieve this year, and like the main thing for me is make that Ryder Cup Team, and I've kind of set my schedule out, I've set everything out to do that. But I think I need to just bring it back to basics and back to what I do best, and that's just being the best version of myself every day, and that's all I can do. That's all I did, sort of we talked about it a lot last winter and we talked about it a lot this winter again, and just going out to shoot the best score I can every day. Look, I go out tomorrow, might be 72, it might be 62, but I know it's the best I can do and I've prepared as well as I can. I think if I do that for the whole season, I'll get to where I want to be. Q. Is it possible to kind of gauge how much an influence winning here had on what happened at Portrush six months later? SHANE LOWRY: Look, there's no doubt that it had a positive impact on my life and my career, and mentally my attitude going forward. Like there's no doubt it had a good influence on that. You don't know, you just kind of -- it's hard to probably put your finger on how much of an influence it had on it, but obviously it did. It definitely did have an influence. There's no doubt. Q. Just belief-wise? SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I had not won for a few years, and I think to win the way I won last year, as well. I led the whole week and then found myself four behind with seven to play, and I showed a lot of character, a lot of determination and a lot of heart that day. I think that can only give you confidence going forward. Like anybody in this game, anybody who plays this game, knows that a lot of it is built on confidence. A lot of form is built on confidence, and that's what I gained from here last year. Q. When you're kind of moving forward, how much do you kind of trade on what went behind? So for example, would you actively go and try and seek what you had this week last year for this week? Do you know what I mean? SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I know what you're saying. Q. Or is that not possible? SHANE LOWRY: I don't think it's possible to kind of duplicate or replicate what you did last year. But clearly, I didn't do things the same as I did last year because I went and played Hong Kong last week. Last year, I had like two weeks practice out here before Abu Dhabi, but turns out going to Hong Kong actually was a really good thing for me last week, because it gave me confidence there and had a chance to win and it was very exciting. It was a nice start to the year. You sit down and you really -- I believe that my gut tells me, what my gut tells me is the right decision most of the time, anyway. If I go with that decision, like you know, that's generally the right thing for me. So I don't feel like you can duplicate. Look, I'm probably not going to play The Scottish Open this year because I didn't play it last year and I went on and won The Open. Stuff like that, you might try that for a few years. I know like Harrington, he had to play the week before The Open. He used to play in the Irish PGA every year, and that led him to win his couple of Opens. I just think, yeah, there's little things that you might try and do the same, but it's very hard to kind of replicate what you've done a year ago. Q. Something you touched upon in Hong Kong, I wanted to ask you about that. How important was that to finish second over there and play well coming into this week? And secondly, the changes on the golf course, what did you think about the 11th tee and what did you think about the golf course? SHANE LOWRY: In Hong Kong? Q. No. Over here. The 11th has been pushed back by about 40 yards. SHANE LOWRY: I haven't seen that. I'm playing the Pro-Am today, so I haven't seen that. There's changes to this golf course, what, 11? Q. 11 is the main one actually, pushed back some 40 yards. So most players are hitting driver and 5-iron, 6-iron now, 4-iron. SHANE LOWRY: Okay. So Hong Kong obviously was a very worthwhile experience for me last week. I went and first year -- or first tournament of the year, you don't know how you're going to play. I only had four days practice here in Dubai before I went to Hong Kong. So I wasn't really -- I knew I was playing okay. I felt like I was playing okay but you don't really know how you're going to compete. To go there and have a chance to win and get myself in the mix again was really nice. So that gives me a bit of confidence going forward. That was obviously a good decision. The changes here, look, the 11th, it might make it more difficult. It might make it a bit of an easier driving hole because it used to be very hard to hit that fairway, whereas now you're going to be hitting straight down the fairway. That's my first instinct. I haven't played it yet, so we'll see what it's like later on. Q. The pictures we saw on your hands with blisters -- SHANE LOWRY: The hands got a bit soft over Christmas. I played one round of golf in December and wasn't used to it. I came and I only had four days here in Dubai, so it was -- I was trying to squeeze a lot of practice in, more practice than I normally do. Yeah, managed a few blisters but they are somewhat cleared up now. Nothing along the lines of Alex Noren's hands or anything. But I suppose it's hard luck for me. Q. How many hours did you put in those four days? SHANE LOWRY: I basically had my trainer with me, and we were in the gym at 7.00 every morning and we went to the golf course, practiced all day and went to the gym again. We probably left the gym at 7.00, 8.00 that evening and went for dinner and went to bed. It was like a little mini boot camp, but it was fine. It was good fun, actually. I really enjoyed it. Q. Talking about photographs, I went for a walk around the clubhouse yesterday and everywhere where I looked, there's your picture. SHANE LOWRY: I didn't know what you were going to say there. Q. Everywhere around the clubhouse, everywhere you walk, there's a photograph of you and there's a little thing on the back of the first hole grandstand of wins last year. There's always photographs of the previous champion but what's it like seeing yourself everywhere around the course? SHANE LOWRY: It's pretty cool I suppose. I don't really stand to admire too much. I walk past it, like it is what it is. I haven't defended a tournament for quite a while, so it's nice to come back to somewhere you've done well. It is nice to be getting the special treatment coming back as defending champion, as well. It makes it a little bit more special. Look, I'm obviously hopeful that I'm going to have a decent week here this week and give myself a chance again. I think when you win tournaments, it is very important to go back and defend them and be here and really soak that in, because who knows when you're going to win over your career. Yeah, look, it's nice to be back. Obviously I didn't request that my mug be put everywhere around the course, just to let you know that (laughter). Q. Winning is one thing. Coping with winning is another. How well do you think you've done the coping with winning, and how well -- could you give us an example of things that you have done exceptionally well and things which perhaps with hindsight you might have done slightly different? SHANE LOWRY: I think I've coped quite well. With the back end of last season, I probably tried a little bit too hard in The Race to Dubai. Probably forced it a little bit too much and put a bit too much pressure on myself. As regards winning here and winning The Open last year, I think I dealt quite well with it. Look, obviously there's a little bit more attention on you, and like I look at last week, last week was probably the first week where I've gone as one of the star attractions to go and play a golf tournament and I felt like I coped with it very well. Obviously I'm here this week as defending champion and I've got great group tomorrow, Tommy and Brooks. It's exciting to be in those pairings. Look, it's nice to be playing with those guys and be playing with the top players in the world. It's where I see I'm at at the minute with my game. Yeah, I do feel like -- I don't have any regrets for last sort of six, seven months. I feel like I've coped with it quite well, actually, yeah. Q. You just mentioned The Race to Dubai. I'm sure winning The Race to Dubai would be one of your goals this year. How do you balance your schedule between, say, America and Europe, because you'd be pretty much in demand on the PGA Tour, too. SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I think I've played both tours now for a few years, and I think the new schedule actually suits the guys who play both tours a little bit better. You can come here, play the Middle East at the start of the year, and then I basically move shop to America until -- it will be The Irish Open this year, which will be in May, and then obviously go back a little bit for a couple tournaments in America. I just think it works out quite well. It is quite difficult. You do need to play well in the big events. Like you do need to pick a schedule that works for you and you need to pick golf courses that work for you, and when you're there, you need to play well. It is a little bit more difficult playing both tours, but look, it's kind of where you want to be. You know, it's exactly where I want to be. I'm looking forward to the challenge of it this year. Q. What about the Olympics? That's another one thrown in, once in four years? SHANE LOWRY: Look, it's a very busy schedule this year. When I look at my schedule during the summer, it's incredibly busy, just back and forth to the States, and then obviously off to Japan for the Olympics and then back hopefully for FedExCup and hopefully on to The Ryder Cup, and it's just it is incredibly busy. But look, the Olympics is going to be exciting. I've never played, so hopefully I can go there this year. I think for me, we don't win too many Gold Medals in Ireland, so if you're able to bring one back to Ireland, I think that would be very, very special. Q. On a similar theme, you mentioned earlier one of your main goals is to make The Ryder Cup Team. Does that manifest itself in any schedule changes, and has your great mate Pádraig had any words on that? SHANE LOWRY: We actually don't talk about it at all. It's not that we've made a conscious decision not to talk about it. We just don't talk about it. My schedule is pretty much -- it's very similar to what I played last year. You know, there's a few courses, I think we talked about it last week, as well. Hong Kong is a course that quite suits my game I think. I think I need to really look at and pick courses that suit me and that I've done well on in the past and make sure I go back there. As regards the way the schedule is this year, it's so tight that the tournaments are there. It almost does itself for you. I am playing a lot of golf this year, and I don't have that many breaks, but you know, that's the way it is because the season's just the way it is. But I'm not adding anything. I'm not not playing anything. Obviously I'm just -- when I play, I'm going to have to play well. BRIONY CARLYON: Thank you for your time this week, Shane. All the best. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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