'The want is maybe there a little bit too much' - Lowry gunning for Open glory

Shane Lowry

Golf has a relentless propensity to grind the best of us to a nub, turn even the most enthusiastic of us into quivering wrecks and leave even the best wondering how we ever played the game well at all.

For all the talk of his results crisis and the recent decision to jettison caddie Darren Reynolds for his first long-term bagman Dermot Byrne, it would be tempting to think that Shane Lowry is immersed in the biggest slump of his career.

Lowry knows he's not even remotely close to that kind of low, but he also knows that the problem is between his ears and that his love for the game remains as strong as ever, even if the game refuses to love him back right now.

"For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, who art as black as hell, as dark as night," wrote the Bard.

Lowry was in far sunnier mood after taking the dawn patrol with Rory McIlroy and scooting around Royal Birkdale's front nine in a couple of hours.

It's the "big one" after all, and with a Claret Jug on the trophy shelf at home and his love for the game as strong as ever, he knows it's the internal battle he must win this week, as much as the contest of wits with a burnt-out links that will reward brilliant, attacking golf and genius-level short game skills. 

"It's still there. It's still there," Lowry says of the magic that brought him glory at Royal Portrush in 2019. "You know the love and the desire for the whole thing is still there, and the want, and you know. 

"I would probably argue that the want is maybe there a little bit too much, and it's easy to start trying too hard. But I've done a lot of work on everything over the last few weeks, and it'll be interesting to see how this week goes."

It's the big one, after all, and Lowry loves what he sees: A hard and fast Open course like the ones we all imagine we watched every summer as kids growing up.

"It's always nice to be here. It does feel like the biggest tournament in the world every time we come here. Feels like it gets bigger and bigger every time we come back."

Coming back as a former winner doesn't give Lowry any god-given right to play well this week, but it does make the task a little easier on a course where he missed the cut by five shots nine years ago.

"It is nice," he says of seeing the Claret Jug in his home office as he packed for the road. "But it doesn't mean you're happy with what you have.  It is nice to come to an Open knowing that you've won one. Put it this way: I'd hate to be coming here and not having one and feeling like I'm under pressure to win one. 

"But it's going to take a lot of good golf [this week]. The rough is very burnt out, and while you can have chances from the rough, you're not going to have much control over your ball. 

"So as the week goes on, everything is going to get firmer; it's going to be harder and harder to hit greens out of the rough. 

"So you're going to have to be on the fairway a lot. It's going to be a great test because the wind's going to be a nice strength, not too strong, not too light, and it's going to make for a good tournament."

Lowry has the technical game to win here, but it's having the resilience to come through the inevitable sticky patches that's going to test him this week, and his decision to change caddie was all he could do to try to change a negative dynamic.

He's failed to take several chances to win this year, and after a missed cut at the US Open, it was inevitable that the caddie would be first to go.

"I felt like I needed to change something, and unfortunately for Darren, it's the first thing that you look at because I can't change much else about myself on the course," Lowry explains.

"Dermot was available to do the following week, and we got on great. It was great to have him back at the Travelers. I had a great week with him. Really enjoyed it. So I were doing these couple of weeks, and we're going to see after that. 

"But look, there's no doubt about it, results are not what I would like them to be. But I think  I'm putting a lot of time and effort into it. I'm not getting much out of it, and I still have to just be patient and wait for some good stuff to come around. 

"I think it's just a small period of the season. I don't even think it's a small period of my career, and it's not even that bad. It's just not as good as I would like. 

"If you look at it in the course of my career or the season, it's quite a small period of time. So I think the plan is to keep going, keep at it and try and play your way out of it. And wouldn't this be a great week to play your way out of it?"

As for the test that awaits, low scoring looks inevitable, and Lowry insists he can't afford to be too cagey and play short of the trouble.

"Rory and I were having that conversation this morning," he says. "I don't think in the modern game you can do that. I think in the modern game you need to take the golf course on somewhat and make as many birdies as you can. 

"I think if you try and lay back and take bunkers out of play, you're playing for pars, and if you play for pars, you'll make bogeys when you're playing too conservative, whereas I think if you take the golf course on a little bit, yes, you might make a couple of bogeys, but you'll probably make more birdies than you will bogeys doing that.

"I feel like growing up watching Opens, this is how I imagined them or seen them in my head. It's going to play like a proper Open this week, and I think the best golfer will win, which is what you want. There's no trickery to it. There's nothing to it other than you need to hit good golf shots and hole a few putts."

While he was disappointed to miss the cut at the Scottish Open, Lowry felt he got a lot out of being at Royal Birkdale on Saturday and Sunday and he knows that this would be an ideal week to break out of his funk,

"There's still a bit to play for," he says of his season and the FedExCup Play-offs. "But I'm going to try and not heap too much pressure on myself, and what will be will be.

"I'll just keep getting up every day and being the best version of myself, and see what happens from there.

"I've a nice draw, nice tee times, and the weather is going to be beautiful. The golf course is great, so it'd be a great week to have a great week."

What excites Lowry more than anything is that this is a test for thoroughbreds.

"Whoever does well this week will have played good golf, and that type of golf course excites me. There's no trickery to it. The greens are quite flat for the most part with runoffs, so you know there's going to be a lot of imagination needed around the greens, and I'm feeling in a good place with a lot of my game."

"I don't think much of my game needs to improve except that I just be a better version of myself out there. I need to try and stay positive for the week and see what happens."

He's hoping he'll be too busy trying to win The Open to worry about who will be All-Ireland Hurling champions on Sunday.

"I think Limerick are going to win the hurling," he says with a grin.

And the Sam Maguire next week?

"Mayo for Sam? My coach is a big Mayo man, and my agent is too, so I feel like I have to say I'd love to see Mayo win. But I am a big Kerry man too, so I don't know.

"How do you stop David Clifford?  Well, if I knew that, I wouldn't be here. I'd be coaching. 

"It's just nice to be here. Seven years since Portrush is a long time ago now. It might help you somewhere along the way, if you do get yourself into contention. But no matter what you've done in the past, it doesn't help you or hinder you in what you're doing now in the present. 

"So yeah, I've just come here and try and play well and see what happens."