THE 152ND OPEN

July 21, 2024

Shane Lowry

Mixed Zone

Q. Shane, after yesterday with the conditions and so disappointed, how did you reset, and what was your mindset going into today?

SHANE LOWRY: It was pretty hard. It was a tough evening yesterday evening, sat around the club here for a while, went home pretty late. Had some dinner, had some good chats with the people that are in my house.

I just wanted to go out and give myself a chance today. I promised Neil that I would go out -- we had a great chat last night. I promised Neil I'd do one thing and go out and fight for every shot, and that's what I did today. Unfortunately, it's not good enough, and it's very disappointing. There's no two ways about it.

I had a great chance of winning this Open, and it's going to hurt for a few days. But onwards and upwards and onto the Olympics and try to win a medal for Ireland and get on from there then.

Q. You had that early bogey, but that surge of four birdies in five holes, you must have felt right in it. You were right in it.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I was one back after that. I felt I was doing the right things to give myself a lot of chances. Yeah, just didn't -- a couple of key putts at the right moments, obviously I holed a couple of long putts today, but you need to hole everything on a day like today, especially to beat someone like Xander, who's in the form he's in.

It looks like he's kind of half running away with it again. He did that on me at the PGA, and he's done it again today, so yeah.

Q. What do you take away from this? Do you think you can look back on this positively given the position you were in?

SHANE LOWRY: How could you not look back on it positively, a chance to win The Open? Obviously the critics and whatnot will say that I probably should have won from where I was yesterday afternoon, but it's not easy out there. It's not easy to win tournaments like this.

I did everything I could. Unfortunately, I came up short. Hopefully over the next five to ten years I give myself another few chances in tournaments like this and get one more.

Like I said at the start of the week, all I want is one more.

Q. How hungry does this make you to get back to Royal Portrush next year?

SHANE LOWRY: Look, honestly all week, the way I was playing, I thought I'm going to be going back to Portrush with the Claret Jug as well. That could be pretty cool. I was very confident with how I was playing this week.

I'm sure going back to Portrush will have its challenges next year for me with some demands and people are going to be talking about me a little bit more than they were in 2019. But, yeah, I'll go back, and I'll enjoy it.

Who knows between now and then what's going to happen. We have a lot of good golf to play. Hopefully I'll be going back, you never know, as an Olympic medalist or a major champion or something. That would be pretty cool.

Q. Your friends last night, how important were they?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I was very down last night, and I said to the boys, I said I can't -- you can't just say, oh, you have a chance to win the tournament and then everything be okay.

Even I went home and Iris was there, and like she's at the age now where she understands, and she knew that I was sad. She come over to me and said, you've still got a chance to win. Obviously Wendy had been saying that to her before I came in. That puts a little smile on your face.

Yeah, we actually had great chats, great laugh over dinner last night. Then myself and Neil had a good chat for 20 minutes or so. Neil just asked me to do one thing today. After Oakmont, I felt like I didn't fight hard enough, and he said to me, you regretted that -- you're still regretting that, and he said, do me one thing, just fight for every shot today, and that's what I did. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough, but so be it.

Q. Padraig said he happened to bump into you?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, Padraig was there. Padraig was trying to give his positive talk, and I was trying not to listen.

(Laughter).

I said to the boys, I said, that's the reason I miss Paddy out on Tour. He's not there full-time now. I miss him an awful lot just for his positivity and just how good of a person he is.

But, yeah, he certainly was helpful last night. Yeah, I was taking -- no, I wasn't taking any help. I turned off my phone and just tried to be with the people around me and go out today and give it my best, and I did that. Unfortunately, it wasn't good enough.

Q. It's great to have the Olympics to look forward to on a course you know well as well.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I'm playing good golf, and I'd love to win a medal for Ireland. Obviously I'd want it to be gold, but I'd probably take either three. So, yeah, I'm very excited about it. I'm looking forward to the week.

Obviously Paris National is going to be a great test and a great course. That medal isn't going to be around your neck until you're finished on that 18th green, that's for sure, at that place.

Now I have a nice week off. Go on holiday with the family, play a little bit of golf there, and get ready for the Olympics.

Q. You've always said golf is a tough game, and certainly the last four days showed that.

SHANE LOWRY: It is, and you're at the very top level. You go out there and put yourself out there in front of everyone and give it your best. Yesterday afternoon wasn't a high point in my career. Those nine holes, I'm probably going to rue them for a while, but it is what it is now.

I'm proud of myself the way I came back today. I holed some great putts when I needed to. Even that one at 17, I was pretty pumped with that. I thought, if I could birdie the last, you never know, and I managed to leave it four feet short. It's a bit stupid. It is what it is.

There's a lot of positive, a lot of FedExCup points to take away from this, even Race to Dubai points. A few World Ranking points as well. So it's nice.

Q. What do you like most about Xander's game?

SHANE LOWRY: He just doesn't really hit many bad shots, does he? I went there two back at the PGA, and I felt like I shot a decent score, and I wasn't anywhere near him. It seems it's going to be that way today.

He's obviously good when he's out in front. Now that he's got one, it looks like he's going to get another one.

Q. (Indiscernible) what was inside you, like the pain? Is that one of the sort of worst things?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's hard. Look, I wasn't stupid enough to think I was out of the tournament, but I knew I had a chance to kind of grab the tournament by the scruff of the neck, and I didn't do that.

Honestly, I'm just -- I feel like I played unbelievable golf all week. I feel like I hit the ball as well as I've ever done.

Q. Today you shot 68, but it could have been 65, it looked like.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, and to be honest, if we had got nice conditions yesterday, maybe it would have suited me better, and it would be a different story today. That's The Open Championship for you.

Q. Does Open golf give you a different feeling of freedom than others?

SHANE LOWRY: Me? No. It's not freedom at all out there. You're only a bad shot away from disaster on every hole. You hit it in the bunker, you don't know what lie you're going to have. There's just an unknown to it, as well as there's a freedom to being able to commit to every shot and see where it ends up. You can't be too precise. You just have to kind of play with a bit of feel.