THE RYDER CUP

September 22, 2021

Shane Lowry

Whistling Straits

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good morning. Welcome back to the 43rd Ryder Cup here at Whistling Straits. We are with Shane Lowry. Shane, 34 years old; is there any extra gratification being on this team in lieu of how hard you've worked to get here, especially because perhaps it didn't come earlier in your career in an easier fashion?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I suppose I haven't really thought about it like that. Look, I'm just happy to be here. I think it shows how hard it is to make a Ryder Cup team. I've had a pretty decent career so far and it's all led us to this now and I'm happy to be here this week and I'm happy to be playing for Europe and so excited to get out there competing and hopefully winning points at the weekend.

Q. Can you give us a little bit of an insight into what the guys have been getting up to behind the scenes, team room last night, anything like that?

SHANE LOWRY: Not much, to be honest. We've been just chilling. We've got a great setup back in the hotel. We've got a great team room. There's a great buzz every evening, good atmosphere, and everyone just kind of sitting around hanging out.

Yeah, not much, not a whole lot, to be honest, just sitting around chatting. We've obviously had a few team meetings, a few little things we've had to do with the captains and the vice captains, but I'm obviously not going to say too much about those.

Yeah, it's just been great fun. We've obviously only been here a couple of days, but I'm loving it. Like I'm really enjoying myself and trying to soak it in as much as I can.

Q. You said after you got picked for the team that this ranks as sort of a crowning achievement for your career and kind of raised some eyebrows considering you won a Claret Jug in Ireland. Can you explain why it means so much to you and why this is such a big accomplishment for you?

SHANE LOWRY: Just because I've never done it before, and it's something as a European player -- look, you obviously want to win majors and you want to compete at the highest level and golf for the most part is an individual sport, but as a European player, as an Irish player growing up, you've watched Ryder Cups, obviously Christy Junior, Philip Walton, Eamonn Darcy, Rory, G-Mac, Paddy, Paul, Darren, all the great Irish players that have played the game.

For me it was something that I really wanted to do and I felt like I had to do, do you know what I mean, if I want to be up there with those guys when you're talking about really good or great Irish golfers.

It's something that I felt like I let slip in 2016 and I should have made that team. I didn't play great towards the end of that campaign.

When I got my chance this year, I felt like I really wanted to take it. Obviously I needed a pick at the end of the day and I'm very grateful that Paddy has put his trust in me. But yeah, it's just something as an Irish player growing up, playing a Ryder Cup is just right up there with everything.

Obviously now that I'm here, there's only one goal for the rest of the week, and that's to win. That would obviously be the icing on the cake.

Q. Do you think that your golfing upbringing kind of equipped you well for playing here, because it seems to be pretty windy and going to stay that way? And if so, what are the kind of skills that you have that help you in those conditions?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I do think I'm pretty happy with the conditions here to be honest. I'm pretty happy with the golf course and that cold wind. It feels very much like a summer's day in Ireland when you're out there. It's quite difficult to play in these conditions because you need to get your head around hitting a 6-iron 150 yards as opposed to normally most guys hit their 6-iron over 200 yards.

It's just little things like I feel might help me this week are conditions and stuff like that, but yeah, how do you cope with it? Sometimes it's hard to practice around here. You just kind of need to know how to do it, and I feel like I know how to do it. Very excited to get out there and compete and hopefully win some points.

Q. Obviously when the U.S. plays in this thing, they carry around the U.S. flag, they play for their country. With Europe it's a bunch of different people from different places. What's sort of the rallying point that brings you guys together in such a good fashion usually?

SHANE LOWRY: I honestly have no idea, but when you enter that team room, there's almost like -- something just hits you. Like it just feels so good to be a part of a group like this, a group of great players.

I was sitting back there the other evening with Tyrrell Hatton and we were soaking it all in and you look around the room and Sergio Garcia is there and SHANE LOWRY and Lee Westwood and some of the greats of European golf.

Obviously the vice captains are there, who are the greats of European golf as well. Paddy is our captain who's one of the all-time greats of European golf.

I just think to be a part of a group like that just feels so special, and just feels so special to be here competing for Europe.

I think we all believe so much in ourselves and we all believe so much in each other that we're here playing for each other and we're here fighting for every last point and every last putt we can get. We're fighting not only for ourselves this week but for each other.

I have no idea why that is that way with Europe, but that's just the way it is, and that's the way it has been for many years.

Q. How cool was it yesterday when you were called out as No. 163 of 164 players to play for Europe in the Ryder Cup, a special moment?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, very special. I think it just goes to show how few people have actually played the Ryder Cup for Europe and how hard it is to do it. I'm very proud of myself of what I've achieved to get here, but obviously I want to be here and I want to make points and whatever.

But yeah, it is pretty cool when you see how few people have done it, and it is very special. It's pretty cool on Monday evening when we watched that video with everyone in the team room and the team room was pretty full and he made the three rookies stand up and take applause, and that was pretty cool.

Look, the whole week so far, I know we're only two days in, has been an unbelievable experience, and I'm so excited for what lies ahead.

Q. I think I'm right in saying that Padraig said every player will have his own special mission this week. I wonder, what's your mission, and have you set yourself your own mission, your own promise to yourself?

SHANE LOWRY: That's the first I've heard of that. My mission in my own head is to -- look, I don't care if I don't make any points this week and we win on Sunday. It doesn't bother me. I don't care if I don't play and we win on Sunday. It doesn't bother me.

There's only one thing that matters this week and that's winning the trophy. It won't be a successful week unless we're standing there with the Ryder Cup on Sunday evening. I'll do whatever it takes to be there on Sunday evening with the Ryder Cup as a part of this team.

Yeah, whether it be playing loads or not playing at all, it doesn't bother me, I just have to do what I'm told this week and do it well.

Q. As a captain's pick and being selected by one of your real good friends, do you feel added pressure to not let him down?

SHANE LOWRY: No. I don't think there's going to be any -- you can't feel any more pressure than there's probably going to be out there on Friday, Saturday, Sunday. You're playing for your team, you're playing for your continent, we're playing for the European Tour. We're playing for a whole lot of things.

Obviously I'm a captain's pick, but look, I was very close to making the team. I was first man out; felt like I deserved a pick.

Yeah, I feel like I deserve to be here, so if I didn't feel like I deserved to be here it would probably be a bit different, but I really feel like I deserve to be here. And like I said, I'm just excited for the week ahead.

Q. As a first-timer, I'm sure you kind of had in your head kind of some expectations of what the week would be like. Having been here for a couple days, has anything matched whatever expectations or thoughts or visions you had and did anything surprise you?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's everything I expected and way more. Look, you know, you walk -- we get into the hotel and we go down into our team room, and it's just the setup in there and just sitting around and being a part of a group like this, it's hard to explain how special it is.

It's kind of -- I had a good chat with G-Mac the other day and he said at certain points you kind of want to stand back this week and really look at what you're doing and soak it all in, and I'm trying to do that as best I can.

It's just so special to be here. It really is.

Anybody that's known me, anybody that's been my friends and family back home, my team, anybody that's been involved with me over the last 10 years knows how much I really wanted to be here, and I'm here now, and it's just -- yeah, it's everything I expected and more.

Q. You were asked earlier about what unifies Team Europe, and I was curious, is America itself maybe some kind of unifying factor that whatever status America enjoys in the world of golf, does that sort of motivate Team Europe as in we want to beat the juggernauts? Is that part of it?

SHANE LOWRY: No. No. I don't know, like I said, I don't know. I genuinely don't know what brings us together as well as we do -- I say we, like this is my first one.

But you watch European Ryder Cup teams over the years, and they do seem to have that something that it takes to compete in this tournament. You just can't teach that or you can't train that or you can't buy that. It's just something that has to come from within.

Like it's something that I think we've had and we have this week. Hopefully we can bring it out and perform our best and then Sunday evening hopefully it'll be our week.

Q. Would you say there's a special chip on your shoulder in regards to America or the team itself?

SHANE LOWRY: No. Look, we know all the American players. We play week in, week out with them on the PGA TOUR. Some of us are friendly with them. They're just a team that are in our way this week to doing what we want to do and we want to beat them. That's just the way it is.

I don't think there's anything there that makes us want to beat them more than just wanting to be standing there with the trophy on Sunday evening. It's nothing about them or nothing about their country. It's just they're in our way for what we want to do this week, and yeah.

Q. When Padraig was winning his majors in '07, '08, what role did that have in inspiring you as a younger player, and can you recount your first encounter with him?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think -- I always say -- look, we've been very fortunate in Ireland since 2007 when it comes to major golf how successful we've been. You look at what Paddy did and then obviously G-Mac after him and then Rory, Darren, and myself. We've kind of battled above our weight, punched above our weight. It's been great.

I think Paddy kind of paved the way for the rest of us to kind of maybe believe more in ourselves and believe that we can do it. It's obviously been great.

My first encounter with him, I don't really know, to be honest. Obviously it was probably when I came on Tour. But he was over here a lot. I didn't really get to know him until I was a few years out on Tour. Obviously I would have played a few practice rounds with him whenever I could, but I've gotten to know him over the last five or six years and we've formed a great friendship, and it's just great to be here as a part of his team because he is one of my good friends, and that'll be an extra kind of added incentive for myself to win for him on Sunday, as well.

Q. G-Mac obviously advised you to sit back and soak it in a bit, but you're a big personality in your own way, strong character. Do you find that difficult or what do you --

SHANE LOWRY: Not sit back and stay out of the way, it's sit back and kind of soak in what's going on around you and then get to work.

I do believe I'll have a big part to play in this team this week, and I do believe that I can bring a lot when it comes to it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday when push comes to shove in this tournament.

Yeah, I don't think I meant that. I didn't mean like sit back and kind of just go about my business the way I normally do or be -- I just have to be myself.

I think I was asked about it on the Sunday evening after I got the pick what can I do this week, and I think if I just be myself this week, I think that'll be good enough. I'll just go out there and be myself and hopefully pick up some points, and like I say, hopefully win that trophy on Sunday.