ABU DHABI HSBC GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP

January 17, 2023

Shane Lowry

Yas Links

Press Conference

MATTHEW JOULE: Good morning, everybody welcome to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. Delighted to be joined by Shane Lowry.

Shane, give us your thoughts on this week and what to expect.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, what to expect, I don't know to be honest. I had a -- I felt like I played all right last week, actually and I need to make sure that I don't lose too much confidence in the results and think about the results too much because I think if you look at my game and look at my scoring, I was actually okay.

So I need to take that into this week and come here -- I played well here last year. I was in the last group with Thomas on Sunday. Didn't perform as best I could, but, you know, put myself there.

I like it golf course. It's a bit tricky and can get windy around here. Hopefully I can come here and have a really nice week. The golf course, I haven't really been out there yet. I was just on the 18th green doing a photo and it looks incredible and I've heard nothing but good things about the condition of it, so looking forward to it.

MATTHEW JOULE: How nice to have a competitive event last week before coming into something like this?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, to be honest I think the Tour did an amazing job last week with the way they put on the event as well. I think when you've played in a Ryder Cup, it could be easy to go last week and maybe not think it's as big as it should be. But I went there and I felt it last week.

I felt like I was in the team room, the team environment, and I wanted to really win for my team. It was a nice week to kick start the year. Obviously the result was not what I would have liked but yeah everything about the week was amazing and the Tour did a great job.

Q. Spoke to Luke afterwards and he said he's not worried about you losing four matches in that event, just the stature of the player that you are. That's encouraging, is it not, that some players night have lost four matches in that event and been gutted, which you were gutted but long-term might have been worrying, but it's your stature in the game, he's not worried about that?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, and he said that to me on Sunday. To be honest I felt -- you know, there's certain points of the week where I felt like if I was a little bit better, I would have won a couple of matches; and if I win two matches out of the four instead of losing the four of them, we win the tournament or tie, anyway.

I was disappointed with myself on Sunday evening. Not that I feel like I let the team down because you get into a team environment and you say, right, there's no "sorrys" this week. It's everyone gives 100 percent and does the best they can and I feel like I did that.

Yeah, if I had won a couple of matches last week, yeah, things obviously would have been different. It's nice to hear look say stuff like that. I feel like I learned a lot last week, actually. I really did, about myself, and about even playing some team golf. Hopefully I can use that if I'm there in September.

Q. Obviously there's no atmosphere, the fans, but everything else had a Ryder Cup feel, including the team rooms, etc.?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I said Sunday evening, we were talking about it. I said if you threw even 5,000 people a day there, I think it would have been an amazing event. It was an amazing event, but if there was an atmosphere or crowds there, it would have been really, really good.

It's great to say the Tour working towards something that we're all working towards, and I think as a tour, we're all working towards winning the trophy back in September. You know, hopefully I can be a part of that.

Q. Did you notice at all last week that maybe everything else that's happened in the game, that this tour, it's brought a lot of guys on the Tour closer together on the European side of things?

SHANE LOWRY: Like we were -- bringing us all together? Last week, I thought as a GB&I team, we were all very, like, close. It was actually great to be part of it and get to know the younger lads. That's what I really enjoyed about it.

I watch a lot of golf when I'm at home in America, so I watch a lot of European Tour golf. To get it know the likes of Richard Mansell and Jordan Smith and these guys properly, and even Bob, to get to know these lads properly is pretty cool. It's nice. Bob, he plays a little bit in America so you get to see him but the other lads just play over here in Europe. To get to know them was pretty nice. Who knows, that could help.

Yeah, we were very together as a team and Sunday night the team rooms were brought together and everyone mingled, and they did on Tuesday. There was a couple of times on Tuesday where they had a couple of ex-captains in there and giving talks and stuff when we're together.

I have learned over the last sort of only two or three years how big The Ryder Cup is for this tour, and like I said earlier on, it is great to see everyone working towards it together, whether it be -- even you're in there, whether it be the guys looking after the clothes or the nutrition or everyone is working towards one goal. I think we'll all be happy if we're there on the 18th green in September with that little gold trophy.

Q. You have special memories of being a former champion her this week, but also overnight, you've been named by the (PGA) TOUR as a member of the committee. How did that all come about?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I got a phone call off Andy Pazder a couple of weeks ago asking me to do it. Never something I thought I wanted to be involved in to be honest. I always saw the lads on committees and stuff and was like, surely that just gets in the way.

But I thought about it a lot and spoke to a lot of people, obviously, and I think where the game is at the minute, it would be nice to be involved and I feel like I could have a little bit of input into what's going on.

Yeah, looking forward to being a part of that.

Q. Do you think part of Andy's approaching you, that you have been vocal and passionate about the state of golf at the minute?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think the fact that I am a global player as well and player over here in Europe a lot, probably helped, and it's probably nice for them to have someone like that on the committee.

You know, it will be nice. Hopefully I can -- yeah, I don't know what I can bring. I don't even know what it involves. I know it's four meetings a year. I don't know what we're going to be talking about in those meetings or on those calls or whether it be at tournaments.

Yeah, I'm involved now and we'll see how it pans out.

Q. One more question on last week. I know you were focused on your matches, but I'm sure you got to interact with a lot of youngsters, especially, say, someone like Nicolai who came in at the last moment and performed so well. Anything about the youngsters, any particular youngsters who may have caught your eye with their attitude in the team room and how they got along?

SHANE LOWRY: I wouldn't say I got to interact with Nicolai at all because I didn't play against him, and I only seen him play a couple of holes and obviously we were in different team rooms.

I can only speak for the GB&I team. I got to see what some of the lads are like in there. Obviously I think Bob stood out. I think Richard Mansell has something about him. He's got a swagger that I like. Yeah, obviously the European, the Continental Europe side, they played good golf and they played better golf. I can only speak for my team but what I saw, pretty impressive.

Q. Between Frankie and Tommy, their return to form, how good does it augur for The European Team as a whole?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, Frankie certainly had his return to form on Sunday, anyway, I know that. Yeah, it was a tough match to come up against for me but I said it to him when we finished. I said, I would love to be a part of a European Team in Rome with him on it playing good golf and hopefully that is the case.

Obviously, look, Tommy, I don't even think -- I wouldn't be pointing Tommy in that bracket of return to form. I think Tommy has never really been out of form. I think he's not really achieved -- maybe he's not at the level he wants to be at or would want to be at. But he's still a Top-25 golfer in the world and still a really good player, and yeah, he played good golf last week and it was nice to be part of his team.

Q. I know golf is always competition like last week against another team but are you proud to have a team, how little bit it looks for the Ryder Cup, European plus the GB & Ireland?

SHANE LOWRY: I don't quite understand what you're trying to say.

Q. Are you happy to have for the two teams going forward for The Ryder Cup?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think last week was a very worthwhile exercise and bar none, everybody you talk to that was there last week thought that it was a worthwhile exercise. Luke got a lot out of it. So hopefully we are standing there or we are in the team room Sunday night in Rome going, you know what, The Hero Cup had a big part to play in the success of this Ryder Cup Team.

I think going forward, I think it will do over the coming years.

Q. You said that Bob stood out a little bit in the room. Could you maybe expand on why you thought that was the case, and can you relate, he's part of a shinty team, as someone that can thrive into team environment?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I think we all know what Bob stands for and what he's like. He was just Bob. He was just himself last week and that's all he needs to be.

I think with just some patience and some hard work, he'll get to where he wants to get and hopefully, you know, that is where we all want to be. I keep talking about September, but I think he stood out by his performance last week more than anything else, and in the team room he was obviously pretty good as well because he's just a good lad.

You know, so he was just himself. He was nothing else. He wasn't doing anything different. But yeah, his performance, look, if you've got an 8-footer on the last hole to win a match, there's probably not many people you want to have there other than him. He'd be on the short list, anyway.

So yeah, he was good and hopefully he can keep performing good over the year and hopefully he's there as well.

Q. As we start a new year here, how do you assess the wider picture of this tour? Do you think it's in a good place?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think -- so I think what's happened in the last year or so, we've got sidetracked in thinking that 20 million or 100 million is just normal and that's what we should be playing for and that's what we're worth; and that if we are playing for 2 or 3 million on this tour, that is not enough.

I still think that this tour has grown, I think with the their alliance on the PGA TOUR, with the prize money, guaranteed to grow in prize money over the next 13 years every year, I think that's good for the Tour. I think it's sustainable, which is the big thing. I think having a sustainable product is something that you need to have, and I do think this tour has that.

I think, like I said, we got sidetracked to thinking that $100 million is just normal. Everybody is throwing out these figures that are just astronomical. I think, you know, as a tour, could this tour be better? Yeah, obviously, we could all be better in anything that we do.

But I do think that with a steady growth over the next number of years, I do think this tour will keep improving.

Q. (Off mic.)

SHANE LOWRY: I'm not going to say that. Look, even I'm going to Phoenix in a couple weeks to play for 20 million. It's great to be involved in it. I just hope it's sustainable and I just hope that in 30 years' time, those guys that are playing on the Tour are playing a better tour than I played. Because I think as a group of players, we need to be -- I said this, Jack and Arnold, and I'm talking about the PGA TOUR now, and even you talk about The European Tour, you go like Seve and José Maria and these guys passed the Tour down to Thomas and all those guys, and they have passed it on to us, and it's up to us to pass the Tour on to the next generation.

You know, Tiger, let's say Jack and Arnold, they pass it down to, whatever you call, Freddie Couples and those guys and they passed it down to Tiger. Tiger is passing it down to us and it's up to us to pass it down to the next generation in a better place than we got it.

So I think that's what's important for golf over the next while, and that's why I am happy to be involved in the PAC on the PGA TOUR and I am quite passionate about where golf is going and what's right for the game over the next while.

MATTHEW JOULE: Thanks for your time and good luck this week.