Shane Lowry plays his second shot on the 11th hole during a practice round ahead of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (Chris Keane/USGA)

Shane Lowry believes he’s a far better player than he was in 2016 when a four-shot lead slipped through his fingers at Oakmont and Dustin Johnson lifted the famous silver trophy to the Pennsylvania sky.

The figure atop the US Open trophy depicts a winged Victoria, the Goddess of Victory, raising a wreath as a symbol of triumph.

But while she’s turned her back on Lowry of late, leaving him “beaten up” and frustrated on umpteen Sundays since he claimed the BMW PGA over 1,000 days ago, he makes no apologies for beating himself up on the course.

Armchair viewers might wonder how a seething Lowry can possibly emerge from the red mist and re-focus, especially at a US Open venue like Oakmont, which is a relentless and mentally exhausting test.

But the Clara man insists that blowing a gasket occasionally is what makes him tick and his outward frustration is not an admission that the game is getting to him but a manifestation of his burning desire to experience the sheer joy of winning again.

“I don't think I'd be where I am if I wasn't like that,” he insisted after playing the back nine with Rory McIlroy, who will be his playing partner with Justin Rose for the first two rounds here.

“I'm just a competitive person, and I don't think it gets in my way at all anymore. I’ll be honest, it probably did back in the past, but I certainly don't think it gets in my way anymore.

“I'm well able to get over shots now. Yes, if you're watching on TV, it might look like what it is, but they literally to show you for maybe 10 seconds after you hit your shot, you've got plenty of time before the next shot.

“But I'm hard on myself because I want it so much, because I put so much into it, and I know what it tastes like. So you just want it again. That’s the way I've been my whole career. I don't think I'm changing anytime soon.”

Lowry didn’t like the question, which is understandable, and asked who we’d like him to be. Scottie Scheffler’s name was suggested.

“Have you not seen him?” Lowry asked. “It’s easy not to lose your head when you're winning every second week. Did you see him at the start of this year when he couldn’t win?”

Shane Lowry plays his shot out of a green side bunker on the 11th hole during a practice round ahead of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club. Chris Keane/USGA

Lowry is playing the best golf of his career right now, and while the victories have not arrived, it has not been for the want of trying.

This season alone, he has finished second twice — to McIlroy at Pebble Beach and Sepp Straka at the Truist Championship in Philadelphia. He was also seventh at Bay Hill, eighth at the Valspar, and even held the lead in the Canadian Open early last Sunday before fading to 13th.

Even his eight-year-old daughter Iris is old enough now to realise if he’s won or lost, and Lowry admits it’s frustrating.

“It's hard,” he said. “I said it to Wendy. You come off the golf course again on Sunday and she texts me and said,’ How do you feel?’ And I said, ‘to be honest, I just feel like it's this every Sunday evening’, you know, just pure disappointment.

“And it's hard to take when you feel like you're putting so much time and effort in and time away from your family and your kids and these Sundays have become quite difficult.

“I was going to say I'm getting the rewards, but I don't feel like I'm getting rewarded, to be honest, because every Sunday I come off the golf course, I feel like I'm after getting punched in the gut.

“I can't remember the last time I walked off the 18th green on Sunday afternoon happy with myself. So that's hard to take, but there will be some Sunday soon, hopefully, where I'm walking off that 18th green, pretty happy and pretty proud of myself. And you know, hopefully it'll be this week.”

Lowry knows he can’t control what others do, though he admits he “gave away” the Truist to Straka “a little bit”.

“I just need a rub of the green here and there and all of a sudden, the tournament is yours,” he said.

He arrives in Pittsburgh in a great frame of mind and while he was second in 2016, he’s not assuming he will play well again. He’s also not buying into the hype around Oakmont. Daunting? No.

“I mean it is very difficult, don’t get me wrong, but I do think it is the type of golf course that if you hit the right shots, you get rewarded,” he explained, confident he has the iron play to conquer the course.

“I felt more intimidated probably by Pinehurst last year than I do by this place.”

Keen observers of the Offaly man know he lives and dies by the mean temperature of his putter. Lowry knows it, too.

“Look, it always comes down to me,” he said. “If I hole a few putts, I’ll do all right. As I always say, if I if I putt well, I’m dangerous. So that'll be it.”

Lowry knows he can’t produce his impressive ball-striking stats on the first tee, or his second place cheque from 2016 and expect the USGA to had over the trophy.

“Because I played well here in 2016 people automatically think you’re going to play well this week,” he said. “But I don't think like that. You know, I'm always, always on the edge of my anxious self, where I want it so much, but I don't want to think that.

“My confidence levels can't be too high. I just need to be myself. And just need to bring myself back down to earth and throw all my expectation away going to that first tee and give it a run.”

He admits now he didn’t have the experience to compete with Johnson on the back nine in 2016 but he believes he’ll be ready if he has another chance.

“I'm a different person,” he said. “I think if I come down in the same position I did that Sunday, I’ll get the job done this week.

“Looking back on that Sunday and watching a little bit of it back like I did the other night, just pure lack of experience got to me that Sunday. I think if I put myself in that position this week, I think I’m obviously way more equipped to do it.”