DP WORLD TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP

November 15, 2022

Shane Lowry

Jumeirah Golf Estates

Press Conference

Q. You've given yourself a chance of winning the DP World Tour rankings and being European No. 1 at the end of the season. How good does to feel to have that chance?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's great to have that chance. To be honest, I wasn't 100 per cent sure or I'm not 100 per cent sure what I need to do. Obviously you come here and you want to just do well in the tournament, give yourself a chance on Sunday to win the tournament.

If everything else stacks up the way I need it to, that will be great as well. It's been a good year. I obviously don't play too many events on the DP World Tour anymore. I play as much as I can, and to be up here giving myself a chance to win, it's pretty nice.

Q. What did it mean to you to return to the winner's circle, particularly at Wentworth, at the BMW PGA, which I know is one of your favourite tournaments?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I feel like I've had a good year up till then but it started to become quite frustrating because I obviously wanted to win so badly. It had been a while since I won. And to get over the line in a place like Wentworth in a tournament like that is just -- at the start of the year, if you're right in tournaments you potentially want to win, that's right up there with them.

So yeah, one much of my favourite places to go play golf and favourite places to play and to have my name on that trophy is pretty cool.

Q. Ten Top 10s on the Earth Course so far. What is it about this course that you think suits your game?

SHANE LOWRY: I think obviously the greens are quite big, so you hit a lot of greens. But I think you need to hit it into the right portions of the greens to not leave yourself big long putts over slopes.

I think your iron play needs to be quite precise, and mine is. This week is as they can thick as I've ever seen the rough and as bad as I've ever seen the rough. I think off the tee this week, you'll have to be quite good as well. Putting the ball in the fairway this week, and then you know, I think if I hit enough fairways, I think I'll have a chance.

Q. What does it mean to players in general to get into this elite field at the end of the day, you included? Nobody gets there by right. You have to win your place here.

SHANE LOWRY: There are certain markers that you want to achieve when you start out the season and this is one of them, Top-50 in Europe and come here and do as well as you can on the DP World Tour and try to finish as high up as you can, and I'm very fortunate that I'm here with a chance to actually win the whole thing.

It's definitely one of those goals at the start of the year that you look at, and especially when as a player that plays both tours, when you're playing in the bigger events, like the majors and the world golf championships, you know how much they mean because you know that they count for the DP World Tour Championship as well. I've had a few good results in those along the year and that's helped me, too.

Q. What does it mean to players in general to make it into this elite field at the end of the year, and guys like yourself to be in the Top-50, it's something that you set out to do at the start of the year, isn't it?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's certainly one of those goals that you have at the start of the year. Being a player that plays on both tours, you look at the big events that you need to do well in and some of the big events and try and achieve that.

I had a good finish in a couple of majors and WGCs, and obviously Wentworth helped me along the way. So it's certainly one of the goals, one of boxes you want to tick at the start of the year and you know any time you find yourself here in Dubai in November, it's been a decent year, so yeah, happy to be here.

Q. If not this week, at some stage in your career, I imagine you would like to get your hands on that trophy and being European No. 1. Talk about what it would mean to you to add your name to that illustrious list of honour there.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, when you sit here and read the names on the trophy, I'm very fortunate that I've won a couple of very historic events, and it's bigger and better than anything when you win those historic and events and when you see those names on trophies that you put your name alongside those. It would be pretty nice to do that. That's certainly a goal in the future if I do something pretty special this week, you never know.