BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

September 12, 2023

Shane Lowry

Wentworth Golf Club

Press Conference

CLARE BODEL:  Welcome, everyone, and welcome to our defending champion, Shane Lowry.  Shane, I think if you can just sum up that feeling last year when you won and how it feels to be back.

SHANE LOWRY:  Yeah, look, this is a tournament that I've always loved and from day one, I got here in 2010, and just fell in love with the place, the area, everything about it and I've had some good results over the years.  It's always one I felt like I could win and to do it last year was pretty cool.  To beat Rory and Jon Rahm there down the stretch was even extra special, two of the best players in the world.  

To come back here as defending champion, to be honest, I've had a busy week and a busy last seven or eight days and nearly forget coming back to here to defend.  

The Irish Open was great.  I can't believe 14-under won.  I think everybody felt the same, the lads going in the locker room after Sunday evening.

Obviously this week is the biggest event on the DP World schedule, so this in its own right is something that you want to look at and try and win again, and you know, a lot of what I've done over the next few weeks is gearing towards Rome.  

Q. Can you talk about how the day went yesterday and how much you enjoyed it?

SHANE LOWRY:  It was amazing.  Obviously it was a get together for the 12 lads, and vice captains and I think it was a very, very worthwhile exercise, and well, you'll all be the judge of that in about three weeks' time.

But I think, you know, especially for the younger lads yesterday, it was very, very cool.  Just to get everyone involved and everyone feel like The Ryder Cup is almost starting and you know because when you get there the week of and it's your first Ryder Cup, even if it's not your first Ryder Cup, the week goes by quickly. So you get in and before you know it, it's Wednesday or Thursday, and you maybe feel like you haven't really got to do what you would have liked.  

So yesterday was a very worthwhile exercise.  We had a dinner last night and had a team meeting. It was one of those days that we got a lot done yesterday that we don't need to do in two weeks.  Any hour you can save the week of the Ryder Cup is needed, so yeah, a very worthwhile exercise yesterday.  

The rough is pretty thick but yeah, you need to hit fairways and you need to hit greens, and you need to stay in the hole and that's the way we like it.  

Q. Any surprises?  

SHANE LOWRY:  I've been told, it's pretty brutal in spot but it's no different -- no different to what you might see at the U.S. Open or something like that.  If you go decently off the fairways, that's going to get very interesting so yeah.  

Q. Did you lose any balls?

SHANE LOWRY:  I only lost one so I was pretty happy with myself.  One group losing a few -- it's one of those, you don't know the golf course and you're hitting over corners and certain holes that maybe when the lads played The Italian Open there, it was driver down the hole but you don't really play it that way now, so just kind of -- I think, look, they tried -- like the Americans do, when they get their home Ryder Cup, they try and setup the golf course to suit them and I think the vice captains are trying to set up the golf course to suit us. If you hit a good driver and second shot down the fairway -- that's what golf's about.  That's how I see.  

Q. What do you feel you'll bring to the team having played in the last?

SHANE LOWRY:  I think I'm a good player for a start.  I think I'm not going to be afraid of anyone that comes to stand on first tee in two weeks' time.  I think I'll be good for the rookies.  I think I'll be good for team morale or in the team room.  I think, you know, I'll be passionate.  I'll show my emotions.  I'll enjoy myself. 

You know, I told the lads yesterday, I think for me, the way I look at it is like, you know, we're all sitting around last night and I said, look, for me, the way I'm looking at this Ryder Cup is you never know when it's going to be your last so you want to make the most of it.  That's kind of how I look at it.  Going to give it everything I can when it comes to two weeks' time, and even like I said, preparing over the next sort of 2 1/2 weeks, is exciting.

I said it last week.  My favourite week of the year is the week before the Masters because I'm preparing for something huge.  It's kind of quite stressful and I get quite anxious about it but I am feeling like that's what next week is going to be like and I'm looking forward to preparing and getting ready for going out there and hopefully winning.  

Q. The American Team haven't won in Europe -- inaudible -- over such a long stretch?

SHANE LOWRY:  Maybe if I did know, I wouldn't tell them.  I think the Europeans have just had a great generation of golfers.  I know we've won some tournaments, like Medinah, over the years, since then.  Europe won a few times over in America but at the end of the day it comes down to who plays the best golf on the week, on any given week.  I think you can set the golf course up to suit your players but if your players are not on form, you're not going to win, end of story. I honestly don't know why the Americans have won over here in 30 years.  That's for them to figure out.  

What I do know is the Americans are a very good team, and a different team from what they have had for a long time.  They are going to be very hard to beat and we know that but we are also confident that we are a young team and a very good team and we are going to be very hard to beat.  

Q. Obviously a bit of discussion about your situation  --  was it a surprise -- did you feel you had something to prove?  

SHANE LOWRY:  I know there was a little bit about that last week and me, and -- need to be careful here.  Didn't sit very well with me to be honest.  I feel like, yes, my results have not been amazing this year, but I feel if you purely go down to statistics and go down to the 12 best players in Europe, I've won of them.  And I feel like I deserve my place on the team.

I didn't feel like I had to go out and prove anything to anyone last week.  The Irish Open is important to me and a tournament I wanted to play well in.  If I showed a few people up, so be it, but I wasn't trying to do that last week.  I wasn't trying to finish third last week.  I was trying to win last week.  So last week was disappointing for me.

This week is the same.  I'm trying to win the tournament here this week.  I know I deserve to be on that team and I know I'll be good in Rome in a couple weeks, and I'm very excited for it.  

Q. (Off mic.)

SHANE LOWRY:  I think they were very good in Whistling Straits, but if you look at their team -- inaudible -- worst player in the world, and that's kind of what we are up against.  They were all playing very good at that time.  You know, we weren't playing as good, and you know, going into it, I think we were playing quite good going into this one. 

We did run into a very strong team at Whistling Straits, and the results showed that.  I think -- but I think they have got a different team this year, obviously a lot of the same players, a few different ones as well and we are obviously a very different team as well and a much younger team.  I think it's exciting.  It's exciting.  I feel like this is almost like maybe the next generation for European golf, and I think that's very exciting to see guys like Nicolai on the team and Viktor.  It is an exciting time for European golf. 

You look at Vincent Norrman winning last week, he's probably going to be on future European Ryder Cup teams.  I think European golf is better than what people have been talking about over the last couple years.  It's very exciting time.

Q. How much did --

SHANE LOWRY:  It's hard.  It is hard.  You're not going to sit there and make excuses.  You need to get off to good starts and it's a hard place to be and tough place to play golf.  I've always said Whistling Straits was one of the greatest experiences of my golfing career and I'm not going to say any different now.  I really enjoyed my time there and it was great to be part of it, it's what we talked about yesterday, it's great to be part of Ryder Cup, but the guys that won one said it's even better to be part of a winning one, so that's the main goal.  

Q. Do you see any advantages to the setup for the U.S. in a few weeks?  

SHANE LOWRY:  I mean, like advantages to the Europeans over the U.S.?  

Q. In regards to the course setup.  

SHANE LOWRY:  It's hard to, if you look at the way the course is set up, Scottie Scheffler is No. 1 tee-to-green in the world.  So it should suit him.  They have got some of the best players in the world.  But we also have some of the best players in the world and I honestly think that it all comes down to would gets off to a fast start and who holes the most putts.  That's what Ryder Cups are about, and like I don't know to be honest.  

Like we have been told that obviously we're setting the course up for us.  That's what you do when you have home advantage.  That's what the Americans do.  That's what we're going to do. So this is obviously the way it should suit us, the way course is set up but if we don't play good enough, we are not going to win.  We still have to go out there and play good enough.  

Q. Yesterday did you talk about some of these things?  The advantage or what you think will be a presumed advantage or what happened at Whistling Straits?

SHANE LOWRY:  Well, we got there, Rory and I couldn't get out Sunday night, so we flew very early yesterday morning and they pushed the practise round out a little bit.  We got there and pretty much teed off straightaway, and we just played 18 holes, and we came back and we didn't talk much about the golf course to be honest.  

We all went out and played a practise round like we normally would.  We saw the golf course.  It was great for me to see the golf course for the first time because when you get to the week of the Ryder Cup, everything is a bit -- you know, your head can be a bit scrambled out there trying to get to know a golf course, so it was nice to do that.

Then we had a team meeting last night and some dinner and just told stories.  The older guys told stories and the rookies listened, the rookies talked.   It was great.  Everyone spoke last night.   It was kind of an amazing few hours together.  There wasn't much talk about the golf course to be honest.  

Q. Who did you play with?

SHANE LOWRY:  I played with Bob, Sepp and Justin Rose, and yeah, we were pretty good yesterday.  We had a good match up.  

CLARE BODEL:  Thank you, Shane.