Lowry heads home to celebrate: "I'm looking looking forward to sitting in my Mum’s kitchen having a cup of tea and talking about it"
Shane Lowry was shattered to miss the cut but excited to head home to celebrate with his folks and his granny.
The WGC-Bridgestone Invitational winner battled back brilliantly from his opening 78 with a super 69 to finish on three over
And while a late bogey cost him his chance to make the cut, the Clara ace confessed the couldn’t wait to yet home to see with his family, his fiancée — and his granny.
He said: “I am a bit disappointed to miss the cut here. I played nicely today but I just wasn’t myself yesterday. I was struggling with tiredness and even today I was quite tired, I think. I just felt a bit dreamed but I managed to commit to my shots better. I am disappointed but, listen, I won last week. I am looking forward to getting home and seeing everyone to celebrate my win.
“I had no idea (how much winning would take out of me). I had never won something like that before. It’s amazing, if I had finished second it wouldn’t have taken half as much out of me.
“It’s funny the way you come down from the adrenaline rush, it is hard to get back out. I tried today to go out and give itmy best, which I didn’t. It wasn’t to be and I am looking forward to getting home.
“Last week was amazing. I am chuffed with myself. To win a tournament like that — you grow up watching tournaments like that. You go up watching Tiger winning there and you remember him hitting shots into the last there.
“To have your name on that trophy alongside the likes of him is just mind boggling that it even happened. But it did, thankfully, and I am looking forward to get on now with the rest of my season and the rest of my career and hopefully I can kick on.”
The 28-year old could have been forgiven for not trying in the second round after a six over 78 left him near the back of the field.
But his pride wouldn’t let him just cruise in and after three early birdies got him inside the mark, he made three birdies and three bogeys in the last 10 holes to finish on three over.
Gutted to come so close, but still pinching himself after a dream win in Akron last week, he said: “I was fairly robbed with the lip out on eight (his 17th) but I played good and I got out there and I redeemed myself.
“The bogey on the (par-five) fifth was very disappointing — to lay it up in the water was brain dead and to make bogey when it is a birdie hole and such an easy flag was tough to take.
“Obviously I’m a bit disappointed, if I could have made the cut I feel I could do something on the weekend.
“But I am going to go home now and I am going to enjoy my win and I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at home.”
Lowry said he couldn’t believe the level of support he got during his World Golf Championship victory, joking: “I can’t wait to see my parents and my granny and Wendy and my brother and sister and my little nephew. It is enjoying the moment with all of those. It is special for them and special for me and it is great to have people like that around you.
“I am looking forward to sitting in my Mum’s kitchen having a cup of tea and taking about it. That’s the one thing I am really looking forward to.”
He received texts from the likes of Brian O’Driscoll before going out in the final round in Akron but he admitted that the entire country gave him a boost with their support.
“Irish people are great, aren’t they,” he said with a huge grin. “If there’s a bandwagon we’ll jump on it. But it’s great. The support i have had from home has been amazing. The messages … it’s been mind boggling thinking about how much joy that something like that can bring to people.”
Going back to his round, he regretted not having had more time to get over the Akron win to prepare for Thursday’s first round.
“To be honest, if this week had started a day later, I might have been okay. But I was just exhausted out there,” he said.
“I wanted to go out and shoot a good score, something in the 60s and that’s what I did today.
“I was just shattered, even though all week I said I’d just rest myself I only played two nine-hole practice rounds and only hit a few balls.
“I was so tired all week, even out there today. I went into a toilet after the fourth to get in out of the heat for a minute and I was just shattered.
“I felt like I was getting dehydrated and couldn’t drink enough water or eat enough food to keep me going.
“I just felt so flat in the first round, and it was so hard. I didn’t think it was going to be as hard but you learn from stuff like that.
“This was my first time playing after a win and hopefully I will get the chance to do that again.
“It is not easy to go out and win and compete every week, but Tiger used to do it in his time.
“I just felt I wasn’t myself yesterday and if I had shot a half decent score yesterday I would have been right in it now.”
Lowry now has six weeks off before the Alfred Dunhill Links and while he’s not looking too far ahead, he knows he taken a huge step in his career.
Looking ahead, he said: “I just have to keep doing what I am doing. I have a couple of weeks holidays before I get back down to business with Robbie (Cannon) and Neil (Manchip) and just try and play for the end of the season. I have seven tournaments left - maybe eight. And if I can put myself into contention a few times and try and get another win, that’s my main goal.
“They are all big events so I’d take a win in any of them.”
Lowry knows that at 19th in the world, the next step is a major. And having skipped stages in his career before—he won the Irish Open as an amateur and now has a WGC having won just one other European Tour event—a major is next on his agenda.
“The next level is winning one of these, winning a major,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes. Am I planning for the Masters? No. I am just looking to the Alfred Dunhill Links and from there, when the Masters comes around I will play in that and when the Open and the US Open comes I will play in those. I will see how I am playing at the time and see how I do.
“I will definitely have an extra bit of confidence going into those tournaments, knowing I can beat a field of the calibre I beat last week. I think there is an extra level to go, an extra gear but I have to be patient as well. I am only 28 and I have a long career ahead of me.
“Padraig told me that during the week. It doesn’t have to happen overnight. You need to be patient and keep doing what you are doing and keep your head down and see what happens.”
Lowry’s next US stop, unless he plays Tiger Woods’ season ending World Challenge, could come in Hawaii in January with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.
For now though, he’s happy to head home to Ireland for a break and a holiday with his fiancée.
“If you'd told coming over on this trip you'd be given second place twice, I'd have taken it but give me one win and I'll take that even quicker.
“I have a win in the bag and that was my goal set out for the end of the season and I've done it. So the next one is to try and get another one.”
