Lowry and Carey victims of their high expectations
view of the 1st hole grandstand scoreboard with the message "Well Played Cameron See You At Royal Liverpool 2023" during Day Four of The 150th Open at St Andrews Old Course on July 17, 2022 in St Andrews, Scotland. (Photo by Stephen Pond/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)
Shane Lowry and David Carey will fight another day but frustration at failing to meet their high expectations summed up their experience of The 150th Open.
Lowry admitted he was unprepared mentally to find himself thrust into contention with those back-to-back chip-in eagle twos on Saturday and lost all confidence in his putting down the stretch.
A closing 70 left the Clara man tied 21st on nine-under but having raised the Claret Jug aloft in 2019, it felt like distinctly small beer.
“It shows me where I am and where my mental state is at that I’m pissed off at finishing (21st) a big tournament like this,” Lowry said, his cap pushed back on a furrowed brow glistening with sweat. “I would have been happy with that five or six years ago but not any more.
“I love these weeks. It’s what I play golf for. It’s what I get out of bed in the morning for. It’s another eight or nine months until the next one. I’ll be counting down the months until the Masters again.”
Lowry had been putting well for the guts of a year until the recent Canadian Open but while he regained some confidence at the Irish Open, he lost it on the vast greens at the Old Course.
“The only thing I could say about yesterday was that I wasn’t ready for the situation I put myself in,” he said. “I was coasting along at five under, not really doing much, then all of a sudden I was in with a chance to win the Open. It was like ‘wow.’
"The way it was out there yesterday, there was a lot of tricky five six-footers and when you’re not comfortable over them, it puts too much stress on your head, and every part of your game. That’s the way it is. That’s the game we play.
“I never felt as good coming into a tournament as I felt this week. It’s not happened so obviously I’m very disappointed. I’ll have two weeks off, put my clubs away, spend time with family and kids, and maybe do a little trip in Ireland.”
Tied 18th at halfway, qualifier Carey (26) was bitterly disappointed to close with a brace of 73s to finish tied 62nd on three-under.
He drove into the burn at the first and made bogey and while he would birdie the second, fifth and ninth, he came home in 39, dropping shots at the 12th and 14th and double-bogeying the 17th for the second day running after visits to the Road bunker before closing with a birdie for the third time in four days.
“I really don’t think I can hit the ball much worse than I have this weekend,” Carey said. “My iron play has been really poor all week. If I can make the cut playing bad well you have to think you can do better playing well.”
He played with former world number one Lee Westwood for the last two days and the Englishman had just one criticism.
“He’s got a lot of game,” Westwood said. “He hits the ball very well. He’s a little bit hard on himself I would say, but aren’t we all. But you can see he’s got a lot of talent and he’s not short. Everything is there. He’s just got to sharpen everything up and work on the mental side a little bit and learn to shake off bad shots.”
Carey found those hard to take, explaining: “I think the difficulty is when you know the level you can produce. It is one thing when you hit one bad shot or two bad shots, I can move on. I know what I can do and when you don’t, it’s just very very frustrating and maybe some of the frustration from yesterday crept in today as well.”
He added: “It’s that first step. It’s the first time I’ve got to that level and one that I will learn from… It is one thing watching these things on TV and another taking part. It was good to be a part of it. But I am not where I want to be.”
