SHANE LOWRY’S 2023 was ever-so-subtly scored to the ticking of the clock.
For instance, after the Masters: “I’ll be a year older next year. I mean, like I’ve only probably got another six or seven at my peak or at max.”
And this, amid the raucous glory of the Ryder Cup’s aftermath: “Bethpage will be something I would love to be a part of, but I have to enjoy this one. I said it to the lads during the week: you don’t know when it is going to be your last Ryder Cup, so you have to make the most of the one that’s there in front of you and that’s what I did. Hopefully, it is not my last, but if it is, it will be a very memorable one.”
That’s not to say he is in the autumn of his career, but he’s aware that it’s approaching.
“I’m 37 next year,” says Lowry. “There are not too many golfers who have played great in their 40s. I’m starting my 16th season on Tour if you include 2009. It’s been a decent one (career) so far. I feel in my head if I can get to 45 still very competitive, I’d be very happy. There’s still nine years to go, and it does nothing only motivate me. I’m definitely more motivated than I’ve ever been into a new year.”
Playing his part in Europe’s Ryder Cup win in Rome will stand out as one of Lowry’s greatest achievements, but it illuminated what was an otherwise difficult year. His tie for third at the Irish Open was his best finish across a season in which he missed the cut at the Open – during which he bent and then snapped a club across his neck in frustration – and missed out on the end-of-season FedEx Cup play-offs, for which the top 70 in the rankings qualified.
“Pretty average,” is Lowry’s summation of his year outside of the Ryder Cup. “Not much bad stuff, not much great stuff; a lot of good and a lot of OK.
“I think obviously it goes without saying the highlight of my year was the Ryder Cup and that week, but a lot to improve, I think, in 2024. I’ve been around long enough to know that professional golf ebbs and flows: you just have to keep doing what you feel is right. As long as you do that and things aren’t going too badly, you just have to believe that the best is yet to come. And I think that’s what we’re great at as professional golfers. We all believe that the best is yet to come and I’m hopeful that’s the case.”
His lowest moment came after the Masters in April, where he finished in a tie for 16th, 10 shots behind winner Jon Rahm.
“If I was to look at my year, first four months I probably hit the ball as good as I ever have and putted as bad as I ever have. Then I figured that out sometime around May, then it just didn’t hit as well, but it was pretty good on the greens for the rest of the season, quite comfortable.
“And yeah, that was my season, because seasons come and go pretty quick. I always look back and I was completely dejected after the Masters this year because I felt like I hit the ball well enough to win the Masters, I just putted like . . . yeah, I don’t even know what to say, but I putted really badly, it was probably the worst putting week I’ve ever had.”
Lowry was seventh for strokes gained tee-to-green at Augusta this year, but was in the bottom eight for putting among those who made the cut. It began with missed birdie putt from three feet on the first hole and spiralled from there.
“I feel like it’s certainly a tournament that I can contend at, and then like everything, you get the Masters to back nine on Sunday, you just give it a whirl and if it comes off, it comes off”, he says. “The clock is obviously ticking, I’ve only got a few more left.
“Everything I do is to prepare for that and I’ll just prepare as well as I can for that. I did that last year: I played unbelievable golf and just couldn’t get the ball in the hole.
“That’s the game, and then the rest of the season after that I putted pretty well and just didn’t do other things very good. And I think that’s just the game we play. There’s only a certain few weeks where you do actually show up with your best stuff, and you just have to take advantage when you do.”
Masters week is one of the few certainties in professional golf at the moment. The professional game is in unprecedented flux, with Rahm defecting for LIV amid seemingly stalled talks between the PGA Tour and the Public Investment Fund over their bombshell merger agreement.
Lowry said he wasn’t surprised by Rahm’s decision to join LIV, partly because of the strength of the rumours and partly because of the sport’s berserk landscape. He is committed to the PGA Tour as he wants to compete for and win the sport’s biggest events, but admits the whole episode is a lesson in looking after number one.
“You just have to worry about yourself,” he says. “You just have to become that selfish golfer who picks their schedule and wants to play and win the best tournaments in the world.”
Winning the Irish Open, the Open and Ryder Cup means Lowry’s name will be remembered forever, but he has another few targets on his list: the four majors, the Players Championship, and an Olympic medal.
To that end, a lesson of last year is to be more ruthless in drawing up his schedule.
“I’ve sat down with the lads trying to figure out a schedule for me that works to get ready for those six events. And if I can win one of those six, I will be pretty happy.
“I feel like I didn’t pick a good schedule for myself this year early on and I think I struggled with that, I lost confidence in certain tournaments that I historically haven’t played well at anyway. And I just feel like at this level that you need to pick the courses that you feel like if you play great, you’re going to win, whereas I was playing some courses that I feel like if I go there I play great I’m going to finish 20th. So that’s kind of a hard place to start your weekend. So yeah, do my schedule better next year and hopefully my putter behaves and I feel like I can have a very good year.”
Having finished outside the top 50 on the PGA Tour in 2023, Lowry may have to rely on an invite to some of the earlier of the PGA Tour’s signature events, regular season events at which the top players are mandated to play to boost the Tour’s commercial appeal.
“I’d be hopeful that everything I’ve said and done over the last couple of years, that there might only be one or two invites anyway, to help me along the way,” says Lowry. The first signature event is the Sentry in the first week of January, followed by the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the end of the month. Lowry won’t be playing the Dubai Desert Classic in January, as he prioritises the PGA Tour.
Also on the horizon this year is the Olympic Games in Paris, with Lowry hoping to build on his experience in Tokyo, where he finished 22nd in individual stroke play.
“The one thing I remember about Tokyo was I had a bit of a chance going into the Sunday for a medal and I had a bad day Sunday, and I was quite dejected after it. I didn’t think I would be. It’s very high up the list and I know how much Olympic medals mean in this country, and I think that would just be something else, like the Ryder Cup was this year.
“It was like another thing on my list of my career achievements that I wanted to do and I think the Olympic medal, you know, obviously a gold medal will be amazing, but a medal in general would be great.”
To another year, and the chase of another couple of achievements which would survive the ticking of any clock.
