'I said to myself today, I have to go out and win this – I have no other choice'

13 Sep 2026, 19:26 by Niall Kelly · The42

Niall Kelly reports from Trump International, Doonbeg

WHEN SHANE LOWRY rolled in his final birdie putt on Doonbeg’s 18th green, his victory roar felt as much like an exorcism as it did a celebration.

With his first solo win in more than four years – and a record Irish Open-winning margin of 11 shots – Lowry banished the demons of the heartbreaking near-misses that hung over this year.

Twice this spring, Lowry found himself with tournaments at his mercy, leading the Dubai Invitational by a shot as he stood on the final tee box, and then a few weeks later, sharing the 54-hole lead at the Cognizant Classic.

Twice he came away with nothing, and his long winless streak endured, the resulting loss of form and tumble down the world rankings leaving all manner of things in jeopardy: his place at next year’s Masters for one (Lowry needs to be inside the world top 50 at the end of the year to secure his invite), not to mention his spot on the Ryder Cup team for Adare Manor next September.

“Dubai was difficult,” Lowry said in his winner’s press conference. “Cognizant was pretty hard,” he said, before referencing the Sunday of the Masters, where he started the day two shots back but collapsed to finish 11 behind winner Rory McIlroy.

“I feel like after that, a lot of wind went out of my sails. I feel like I was playing great golf, and even after that, I felt like I was playing decent and finishing 25th, 30th, 40th, just doing nothing every week and it was very, very tough.

“And in that stretch, I played like 11 out of 13 weeks or something, so it was quite hard.

“And then the more you kind of keep trying to play through it, the harder it can get sometimes. So to take a few weeks off and kind of reset was nice.

Lowry celebrates with fans and the Irish Open trophy. Ben Brady / INPHOBen Brady / INPHO / INPHO

“What do you do? You kind of trust – first of all, I went and looked at my stats. They were pretty good. Not bad. Not amazing but not horrendous. So that kind of gives you a glimmer of hope.

“So, right, I need to keep trying to put myself in position, and that’s probably the only way I’m going to get through it.

“Put yourself in tough positions and try and fight through it. Believe in what you’re doing with your team. Believe in what you’re doing with the people around you. I feel like I’ve done that.

“And today was a big day for me. If I didn’t win today, I don’t even want to think what I would have been like for the next while. It would have been hard.”

He added: “I said to myself today, I have to go out and win this. Like I have to go out and – I have no other choice. It’s pretty much – honestly a lot of similarities in 2019.

“I felt like I went out there with no choice but to win the golf tournament, and I went out there and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and I did that, so that was pretty good.”

Reflecting on what might come next now that he’s ended his long drought, Lowry pointed to the four 2027 Majors as well as the Ryder Cup.

“That’s what the season is going to kind of revolve around.

“I’d love to be a part of a winning team at Adare, and I think a lot of my work and my – a lot of the reason why I get up in the morning over the next 12 months will be to be part of a winning team there. This has been a good start this week. Obviously I got some good points [towards Ryder Cup qualification] this week.

“But yeah, I still feel like I’ve got a lot to give. And this year has been hard, but you know, you have to go through the tough times.

“And they kept on saying the last few weeks, they kept on saying, this is just a minor speed bump in the career. It’s nothing really.

“And if you look at it and break it down, actually there’s a couple of bad things happened, but you know, it’s not been unbelievably bad. I’ve not been missing loads of cuts. I’ve not been shooting really high scores. I’ve just not been myself.

“And I was back to myself this week, and it was really enjoyable.”

When you do something special like I did today, I'm going to soak it all in. Dan Clohessy / INPHODan Clohessy / INPHO / INPHO

Earlier in the week, Pádraig Harrington made the prescient observation that he believed the current Shane Lowry to be the best version of himself.

Does Lowry believe that there’s better yet to come?

“I think you have to believe that. I think if you don’t believe that, you’re on the way out. So I think you have to believe.

“I’m a glass-half-full – I was sitting here Wednesday saying I’m a glass-half-full, and I have to be, and you have to be in sport, and you have to be in everything that you do, so yeah.

“Look, I’m going to enjoy this. I’m going to sit back, take it all in. It’s been – I keep saying it’s been a difficult year. It’s not been a difficult year – honestly life off the course couldn’t be better. It’s amazing. But I’ve had a few bad weeks off the course, and it’s pretty tough at times.

“But in golf, you lose a lot more than you win. I said that in here on Wednesday, as well. So it can be a tough — a tough career, and so when you do something special like I did today, I’m going to soak it all in.”

Lowry also made reference to an incident on the 18th in Saturday’s third round, where his frustration at some people crossing the fairway while he waited to tee off boiled over, and after pulling his tee shot left, TV microphones picked up him saying “they deserve to get hit”.

“18 yesterday, it’s funny, right, because marshals obviously have a very tough job and they are volunteers, but they get a little bit in the way at times, I feel like,” he explained.