The Clara native was also identified as a potential Team Europe weak link.
“I think even with my year that I’ve had,” Shane Lowry told reporters, ahead of The Ryder Cup, “statistically, it’s better than some of the people that you were talking about that should have been picked ahead of me. Statistics don’t lie. That’s the reason I’m here.”
Although it feels like he has been one of Europe’s top 10 golfers for the past six or seven years, the 2023 Ryder Cup will be only the second time Lowry has played in the team event.
Heading into the competition, Lowry found himself in a lot of the team selection discourse. He has not won an event since the 2022 BMW PGA, at Wentworth. He had three top 35 finishes in the majors but the highest he finished was 12th at the PGA Championship and missed the cut at The Open.
“I always feel coming in here that I can add a lot to the team not only on the golf course but in the team room and around, all of that,” said Lowry.
“Look, you have to back yourself,” he added. “If people are talking about you saying you shouldn’t be on the team or this, that and the other, it’s obviously not going to sit well with you because you feel like you should be there and you want to be there.
“I felt like at the Irish Open, what should have been an amazing few days after getting picked on the Ryder Cup Team, was kind of a bit of a downer for me because I had to kind of fight off all this negative talk in my head.”
If Lowry is seeking to stave off negativity, he could do with steering clear of the America golf bubble on social media, and skip the No Laying Up Ryder Cup preview featuring Golf Digest writer, Shane Ryan.
Shane Lowry tipped as potential ‘L.V.P’
During one of their big Ryder Cup previews, the No Laying Up team were joined by Shane Ryan to discuss match-ups, pairings and predictions for top performers, as well as guys that might suffer.
Viktor Hovland was tipped as a potential Most Valuable Player [MVP] on the European side, with Team USA star Scottie Scheffler a shout for the other side. Host Chris Solomon said he was ‘a little worried’ by the four-man pod of Shane Lowry, Sepp Straka, Justin Rose and Bob MacIntyre.
“If I was a fan, I’d be concerned. If Lowry or Rose do not play well – if one of them has a stinker – I could see where they’d be in a little bit of trouble.”
“They treat Lowry like a 10 Ryder Cup veteran,” said Ryan, before adding, “He went 1 and 2 in the one time that he played… Shane Lowry was the one name I was going to come up with it [for potential Least Valuable Player].”
Later in the show, Ryan was impressing upon the match-play credentials of Team USA star Patrick Cantlay and harked back to his singles game against Lowry, in the last Ryder Cup.
Lowry fell three-down to Cantlay after only eight holes and there were a few fractious moments over the course of their match. Ryan recalled:
“He was playing against Shane Lowry and, at the turn, Padraig Harrington [European captain] was standing at that area that overlooked everything. First of all, Cantlay came marching through, looking like he just wanted to murder somebody.
“Shane Lowry came after him, and I think he was only one or two down, at the time. He just looked at Harrington and goes, ‘I’m sorry’.
“He was just so thoroughly beat by this guy. It was just one of those things… Cantlay is your biggest psychopath, and I mean that in a good way.”
Lowry would birdie the next hole, on 10, to get back to just two back of the American but that was as good as it got. He was beaten 4&2 as the Europeans lost 19-9 in Wisconsin.
During an interview with Paddy Power, last year, Lowry admitted that ‘Patrick Cantlay p***ed me off on the 8th hole’.
“He was riling up the crowd whilst I was lining up my putt annoyed me quite a lot, and I didn’t feel that it was good from him, but it is what it is. In Rome, we’ll hopefully win and win in a different style, that’s how I’m looking at it. ”
If Shane Lowry needed even a smidge more fire for the belly, heading into the 2023 Ryder Cup, he has it now.
One hopes there is a chance to meet Cantlay in match-play or teams action at Marco Simone Golf Club.
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