PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

May 18, 2022

Shane Lowry

Southern Hills Country Club

Flash Quotes

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JULIUS MASON: Shane Lowry, ladies and gentlemen, joining us at the 104th PGA Championship.

Welcome to your 12th PGA Championship, Shane. 2022 has been a pretty good year for you so far. Do you have any particular expectations this week?

SHANE LOWRY: I think going into a big week you always have expectations of yourself. I've obviously been in some decent form of late. Yeah, I'd like to come here and give myself a chance come Saturday or Sunday afternoon. That's kind of what it's all about, and that's the reason we play the game.

Quietly confident, but you always have that bit of anxiousness about you, as well, and we'll just have to see how it goes. I just prepare as best I can over these days.

Today is Wednesday, so go out there, play nine holes this afternoon, get to know the golf course a little bit better again, and hopefully things go my way this week.

JULIUS MASON: Can you talk a little bit about Southern Hills? Have you played 18 already?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah.

JULIUS MASON: What do you think?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's an interesting place because you're standing on the tee box, you think it's quite generous, and then you get down to your second shots and around the greens and that's where it gets tricky. There's going to be a lot of chipping and putting this week. It's going to require a lot of good iron play. You need to be in the fairway.

Yeah, it's going to be an interesting test. I'm still trying to figure out what's a good score around here. That's kind of one thing when you come to a new golf course, you try to figure out what a good score is.

I've got an afternoon tee time tomorrow which is nice so you can see what the morning guys are doing tomorrow and sort of figure out what's good out there, and then you kind of plot your attack on the course and see where it goes from there.

Q. Short game is always extremely important in a major championships, any golf tournament really, but is it more magnified at a place like this?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, the guy who wins this week is going to hit 13, 14 greens a day, and he's going to miss four greens and he's probably going to get up-and-down a lot of the time. That's what you're going to need to do.

I think a good day around here would probably be 13, 14 greens. So you're probably going to have four chip shots a day this week and you need to be good with those.

It's not so much -- it is obviously you need to be good, but you need to leave yourself in the right spots, as well, around here. You get above the hole and get short-sided, you're going to have a very difficult time. You need to be clever with your approach shots, as well.

Q. With the combination of sort of the run-offs of the greens and the importance of chipping this week and adding the sort of wind in the forecast, a lot of people have put two and two together and thought, this is a great week --

SHANE LOWRY: It's a guarantee, isn't it.

Q. You can't possibly lose. But how do you view it? When you arrived, did your eyes light up when you see this kind of golf course?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, it's obviously going to be windy. I can deal with the wind. I can chip. You're going to have those key moments throughout the week like you do at every major championship where you're going to have these six-, eight-footers for par that you're going to need to hole. That's what these tournaments are all about.

Yeah, I don't mind that around here; let's just put it that way. It's a good opportunity for me to go out there and show people what I'm made of again this week, and hopefully I can be there or thereabouts come the weekend.

Q. As you mentioned, the difficulty in knowing what a good score is, when Tiger won here in '07 he shot 63, I think the winning total was only 8-under --

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, and that's Tiger Woods, so...

Back then obviously -- we'll see what the winning score is. I don't know, you just have to go out there and play your game and hopefully you shoot some good scores. Someone is going to shoot a low one tomorrow. Someone always does on the Thursday of a major, and Thursday of even a difficult -- no matter who difficult the golf course is. Yeah, we'll just have to wait and see.

Q. You've been so consistent this season with really good results; how does your game compare this season to perhaps when you won the Open Championship?

SHANE LOWRY: I think it's pretty similar. Like if I go back and look at my form going into The Open in 2019, I think my form was pretty good. I'd won early in the year in Europe, and a couple of -- finished third in Hilton Head and second in Canada. So I was playing quite good, consistent golf that summer.

Yeah, it's pretty similar, so yeah, I wouldn't say it's better. It's probably the same. Hopefully I can get some similar results in the next few months.

Q. You're a major winner, you've won WGCs. I'm wondering at this stage of your career, playing the most consistent golf of your career, what are your ambitions for the rest of your career, especially regarding majors?

SHANE LOWRY: Look, I'd love to win -- obviously I'd love to win more majors. But I don't think that's a given. I think that's just kind of something that you need to go out and work towards, and if it comes your way, you need to take it. It's one of those where you get four of them a year.

It's hard to peak your game for those weeks. It's hard to peak your mental attitude for those weeks. You just need everything to be in the right place to win those tournaments because it's so hard to win out here in regular events, let alone majors.

My expectations for the rest of my career? If I was to finish with no more majors, would I be okay with that? Yeah. But I do want more. I am very driven and very -- I'm a very driven and very competitive guy. I know I want to win more majors, and I want to win more tournaments.

But would I be happy when I'm finished with what I have now? Yeah, I suppose I would. But that doesn't make me any less driven.

Q. By your reaction, it looks like you're not keeping count on how many PGA Championships you've played.

SHANE LOWRY: No.

Q. Do you have any special memories or anything that --

SHANE LOWRY: I think you just go back to last year, playing that final round with Paddy was pretty cool. That was one of the more enjoyable rounds of golf. It was a day where I was playing with one of my really good friends and I was really -- I was feeling a lot of pressure because obviously he was the Ryder Cup captain at the time and I was gunning to make his team last year, and I went out there and put in a good performance. And it was pretty cool, and to do it alongside him; and he did the same thing, he gave himself a good chance to win actually on Sunday.

I think with Phil winning last year, it actually -- it missed what Padraig actually did on Sunday. He had a good chance with five or six holes to go to win a major at 50 -- was he 49 or 50 at the time, whatever.

Yeah, that was one of the more special PGAs that I've played. It was my best finish in a PGA, and I can't believe this is my 12th. When I heard that, I was like, I feel like I'm getting old.

Q. Talking about Padraig, you had an Irish practice round yesterday with the four guys.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah.

Q. What was the craic, and then any lessons that you learned from you didn't know from Padraig this time?

SHANE LOWRY: No, it was nice, at the Masters this year obviously Seamus got into -- he's in all the majors this year now for the first time.

So it was nice to be able to accumulate a four-ball on a Monday or Tuesday afternoon at a tournament like this, and just go out and enjoy it and play a game against each other. Myself and Seamus, we got unlucky. We halved yesterday, but it was just -- look, it was just four Irish lads out there having a good time and getting to know the golf course.

You learn bits from days like that, but it's hard to put your finger on what they are.

Q. You just mentioned Phil; what's your reaction to him -- we all know the reason why he's not teeing up, but what's your reaction why he's not present there as defending champion, which I guess is a real shame.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think as you said, I think it's a shame.

I think when you look at what Phil Mickelson has done in the game of golf, he's won of the -- if you were to sit down at a table and start an argument about the greatest players of all time, his name would be in the hat.

I think it is sad to see him not here this week. Yeah, that's kind of all I really have to say about it. It's sad for -- I suppose he's obviously disappointed not to be here.

I think when it comes to it, the rest of us will just go about our business and just get on with it, but it is sad to see a great of the game not being here, especially after doing something like he did last year at the PGA.

Q. Julius is standing there beside and is going to strangle me when he sees me, but I know you like a beer, and we all like a beer. What do you think of the beer prices this week?

SHANE LOWRY: Cheers, Bernie. You're full of great questions this week, aren't you? Good thing you're not here.

Q. I know.

SHANE LOWRY: It wouldn't bother me. I'd probably still buy them.

Q. As I said, Julius is going to strangle me when he sees me. The prices don't bother you --

SHANE LOWRY: Bernie, you're breaking up there. We can't hear you. (Laughter.)

Q. Shane, before Augusta you felt very good about your chances going in there, and you put yourself in that position to have a chance. Do you feel similarly this week about where you are and going into this event?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I do feel good about Augusta and I gave myself a great chance that weekend.

Obviously I went to Hilton Head the following week and probably should have won, having another good finish there. I played the Zurich the week after.

But I've had three weeks off. I feel recharged and ready to go for the rest of the summer. I've got a good run of tournaments coming up, so look, I just try and prepare as best I can for a week like this, and I know there's a big summer ahead of me. If it doesn't happen this week, just keep going, and hopefully it will happen at some stage the next few months.

But I do feel good. I do feel good where my game is at, and I'm excited for the week ahead.

Q. I'm curious, when you're hitting the ball really well and coming into these difficult major championship weeks and the pressure ticks up, is there a thought that you go to maybe in your swing or your game or something you tell yourself that just helps you kind of keep it on the straight and narrow?

SHANE LOWRY: No. I just think you come to weeks like this, and you're obviously -- the one thing you're trying to do is trying to limit your mistakes, and you're trying to -- you tell yourself that bogeys are okay, doubles are not great.

Yeah, I don't really have a thought other than that. It's kind of getting myself in the frame of mind where I'm okay with a bogey. I know I can make it up with a good shot or a good putt. But just get on with it and go about it.

As I said to the lads when we were playing yesterday, I think this is the type of golf course where you just need to play your golf and take what you're given because you're probably going to get a few bad breaks, run-offs and stuff like that, but you just need to take it on the chin and move on.

At the end of the week if you're standing there at the top of the leaderboard, amazing. If you're not, you've gave it your best. That's kind of the frame of mind I'm trying to get myself in.

Q. With 17 being a short par-4, and 18 looks quite a difficult finishing hole, obviously they're going to have a key part to play on Sunday in particular, but any holes stand out for you as key to get through either with par or better?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, there's obviously a few very difficult -- like the wind direction was quite strong yesterday, so that long par-4 on the back nine, what is it -- I can't remember what it was. Was it 15 or 14? 14 or 15? 530 yards, 16 maybe. One of those holes that was downwind yesterday, but if that turns into the wind, it's going to be driver, wood, like. And there's a hazard there short left you didn't see yesterday because you're hitting 9-iron in, but if the wind turns you'll see that.

The par-3, 6th on the front nine, when the pin gets back left there, there's not much room up there, at all. You hit it long of that green, you find that out-of-bounds pretty quick. So there are a couple holes just off the top of my head.

I've only played -- I've played 22 holes. I'm going to play another nine today, so I'm still trying to figure it out and get my head around it.

Q. I remember the morning of the Sunday when you won at Portrush, the 2019 Open, you said you woke up and said, "I don't know if I have what it takes to win a major," and then you went out and did it. I'm curious if that has engendered a confidence in you now where you come to majors and say, "Hey, I do know I have what it takes to win a major." Do you feel differently now coming to major championships?

SHANE LOWRY: I wouldn't say I feel differently at the start of the week, but I know if I put myself there on Saturday and Sunday that I've got what it takes to do it. That's kind of where you get your confidence from, something like that.

I think at the start of the week, golf is something that you take nothing for granted because you don't know what it's going to give you. So you just have to go about your business and do your thing. And then when it comes to the weekend, if I put myself there, I know I have what it takes to compete with the best of them. That's kind of where the confidence comes from.

Yeah, I've put myself there or thereabouts at Augusta, and that was cool. That was quite special. Obviously I didn't do it or didn't do as well as I would have liked.

But yeah, hopefully I can -- I think over the course of my career over the next however many years I play and I'm in major championships and I'm at the top level, I think I just want to give myself a few chances. If I give myself a few chances, I feel like I maybe can win one more.