THE 149TH OPEN

July 18, 2021

Shane Lowry

Mixed Zone

Q. Shane, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations, Shane, on a stout defence of your title. First of all, a couple of questions. You might take us through that extraordinary stretch from 6 to 10. Secondly, you received a tremendous ovation coming in on 18 there. You might talk us through your emotions as you walked up onto the final green.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, the first five holes are always tricky around here, and I was pretty happy to play those on par and, and then get to 6, I birdied 6 three out of four days so birdied it again today.

Then I hit two great shots into 7 to give me a chance at eagle. I was looking at the board thinking, Wow, if I can hole this, I'm really in the tournament.

It's good to get my juices flowing. I actually hit a great putt there. I thought it was in; just missed and I bogeyed there. Birdied 9 to have a good 2-under. Front nine was pretty good. I pulled my tee shot on 10 and pulled my second shot -- yeah, just a bad break. Something that you get in links golf, but I recovered well.

Then for the rest of the day, I was kind of -- it was -- I hit some good putts, and I kind of was leaving myself a little bit too far away. It was hard to get close to some of these flags, and it's hard to hole 30-footers on these greens because they're quite slow and it's hard to get the ball rolling at the hole.

All in all, it's been a great week. Another good performance in a good tournament. I'm happy with myself and I'm proud of myself, yeah.

Q. Good strong defence of your title. That's your first major defence out of the way. How different from a normal week in terms of what you have to deal with? What you learn about yourself going forward?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it wasn't too different. I suppose I was a bit edgy the first day, but you kind of get that the week of big tournaments anyway. I don't think -- I don't think it was a whole lot different from normal big tournaments, normal majors.

I really enjoyed the whole week. It was an amazing experience. Walking down the last hole today was one of the coolest things you'll ever get to do, and I got to do it.

Like I said, I think it's been a great week. I obviously would have liked to have finished a little bit better, but it's a pretty nice result in a big tournament and another good performance. I feel like I've played four majors, obviously, this year, and I feel like three out of four of them I've had really good performances, played some of my best golf.

If that's not a step in the right direction, I don't know what is. I'm pretty happy with my year in the big events.

Q. Hi, Shane. Well done on the week. At the start of the season with Ryder Cup qualifications obviously one of your top goals, this week should see a jump into those automatic spots for the first time this year as well. How good is it for you to know like at this time of the year, such a big mental positive that you're trending in the right direction despite not really playing your best?

SHANE LOWRY: Who said I wasn't playing my best? I don't know if you've watched golf over the last three months, Peter, but I think I've been pretty good.

Q. Lovely day today; great to watch. Just wondering, what were you thinking going out there? I know last night you said you didn't know, maybe 11-under might be enough. When you're looking at the early scoring and going, Yeah, the scores out there, I could maybe shoot a score, did you have a feeling at any stage, maybe when you birdied the 9th, you know what, 3 or 4-under on the back nine, we could have a sniff here. How did you think about it?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, obviously, I watched a bit of golf this morning. I knew there was going to be a score out there. Someone's going to shoot a score because it's tough but it's gettable. Also, it's Royal St George's, and you go out there and try to be aggressive, and you could get kicked in the face. I didn't want to be that person that's too aggressive. I still wanted to go out and play my game plan how I've been playing.

I knew I could shoot 5 or 6-under when I got on a roll. When I birdied 9 -- I missed a great chance for eagle on 7. If that had gone in, it's kind of like -- even after 9, I was thinking plenty of golfers have shot 4 or 5-under on the back nine in majors to win them and come from behind. I said to myself going into 10, why can't that be me? Obviously, I got a little bit of a bad break in the bunker on 10 and made bogey there, and much didn't really happen for me over the last few holes.

But all in all, I played my game plan and I played some good golf, and I'm pretty happy with it.

Q. Congratulations on a great defence, and also thank you for all your time in the lead-up to this week. Could I just ask you, with the Open you just putted out in defence of your championship, how much are you looking forward now to going to Tokyo? I know you've had the air tickets for quite a long time, probably as long as you've had the Claret Jug.

SHANE LOWRY: I've said all along, when it comes along, I'll be looking forward to it. I'll be trying my best. Obviously, it's a huge honor for me to go and represent my country at the Olympics. It's something I never thought I'd do, but now I get to go and do it. I'm going with one goal and one ambition, and that's to bring a medal back to Ireland. That's the only reason I'm going. I'm not going there on my holidays. I'm going there to win a medal, and that's kind of the way I look at it.

I feel like I'm playing some good golf going into it. Who knows? It's a great opportunity for me to go and do something very special. Hopefully, I can get over to Tokyo and grab it by the scruff of the neck, and like I said, come back with a medal.

Q. Just quickly, how do you prepare for the games? Have you spoken to Rory about team tactics and team uniforms and that sort of stuff?

SHANE LOWRY: Well, we have our clothes. I'm pretty sure. We've been told what to wear. We'll decide what to wear when we're over there, but it's obviously not a team event -- we are a team going over, but -- we are staying in the same place and we are going to be hanging out together that week, but I think like it's individual.

I think it's going to be quite warm over there, but I've played in heat before, so it doesn't really matter. It's just another week. Yeah, no tactics talk yet anyway.