Shane Lowry was understandably hot.
Even after a third-round 77 Saturday around a treacherous Royal Troon, Lowry still had a chance, just three shots back. But when it came to grabbing this Open Championship by the scruff of the neck, Lowry failed in that regard.
And so, Lowry, clearly beaten down by the heavy rain and wind, fired off a shot at the setup team.
“You’d have to question why there wasn’t a couple of tees put forward today, to be honest,” Lowry said Saturday evening. “I think 15 and 17 – like 15 is 500 yards playing into that wind. … They keep trying to make holes longer, yet the best hole in this course is about 100 yards.”
Fellow Irishman Paul McGinley, now a Golf Channel analyst, knows this version of Lowry well, but that doesn’t mean he agrees with him. McGinley was asked Sunday evening on Golf Channel’s “Live From” following Xander Schauffele’s victory (and Lowry’s solo sixth) if Lowry was correct in his belief that some tees should’ve been moved up.
“No. Nonsense. That’s links golf courses,” McGinley said before noting that Lowry had benefitted – and perhaps benefitted unfairly – from such a setup adjustment in the past.
It was the 2009 Irish Open, and Lowry, just an amateur at the time, fired a 62 in the second round while playing in the afternoon wave. At the beginning of the day, the tee boxes had all been moved up in anticipation of rough weather, which was expected to last throughout the round. McGinley backed up his opening 71 with a morning 68 and found himself around the top five by lunch. But then the skies cleared, the winds died down from 30 mph to near-zero, and half the field, including Lowry, were handed benign conditions with soft greens.
“And of course all the tee boxes were moved up and guys ripped it apart,” McGinley said. “Shane shot 62 and went on to win. … But that’s the luck of the draw, and it’s part of links golf.”
This past Saturday at Troon, the first 10 groups played the more difficult back nine a shot and a half better than the last 10 groups, which had to face significantly tougher conditions. Lowry was one of five players in the last seven groups who shot 40 or worse coming in.
Tough luck, McGinley says.
“Yes, the guys at the end got screwed, and yes, the golfing gods decided to shuffle the pack by making the leaders play in the toughest weather conditions, but that’s the perils of playing links golf and that’s kind of part of what you have to accept,” McGinley said. “Shane will regret that comment. I know what he’s like; he was hot when he came off. … He let a great opportunity slip to win this tournament, and he knew that. He was hot he had to do press, and he said things that I’m sure he has regretted because nobody loves links golf courses more than he does.”
Added McGinley’s colleague Brandel Chamblee: “Really what [Saturday’s weather discrepancy] did was neutralize the advantage that the players who had been on the right side of the draw Thursday and Friday had, and really it was just pure, fair golf start to finish. If you played well this week, you certainly earned it.”
Following a final-round 68, Lowry was in a better mood having shown plenty of fight on Sunday.
“How could you not look back on it positively, a chance to win The Open?” Lowry said. “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. ... 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.”