SHANE LOWRY SAYS the Irish Open is the only event on the European Tour that he would consider playing in 2020, but suspects he will be spending the remainder of this year in America.
The Offaly man has been in Florida since March, as he prepares for the return of the PGA Tour next month.
The Charles Schwab Challenge, which tees off on 11 June in Texas, is scheduled to be the first event after the resumption. The first four tournaments will be closed to spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking on RTÉ 2fm’s Game On, Lowry said he has found the break from golf to be a “frustrating” experience overall, but has enjoyed spending time at home with his wife, Wendy, and daughter, Iris.
“I never thought I’d miss golf the way I did,” he begins. “I miss the competitiveness of it and I suppose I’m fortunate that I hopefully have another good few years left in me but I certainly did miss the competitive side of it and going out competing week-in-week-out.
“In another way it was nice to have time off with the family. The 10 weeks I’ve had at home, I’ve never had that with Iris so that’s been nice.”
The European Tour is scheduled to resume with the BetFred British Masters on 30 July, but Lowry says the Irish Open is the only event he would consider travelling for if it does go ahead in 2020.
“I don’t think so,” he said when asked if he has any plans to play on the European Tour this year.
“I think the way it is, especially with the quarantine on both sides, I don’t think that’s physically possible for me.”
The only tournament I would contemplate going back for was if there was an Irish Open put back on the schedule or something like that. I haven’t seen a schedule from the European Tour so I can’t really tell, but I’ll probably be mostly in America for definitely the rest of the year.”
Remarking on the absence of spectators at the upcoming PGA tournaments, Lowry says he’s just looking forward to returning to competitive golf.
“Crowds or no crowds, I’m just going to be happy to be back playing some competitive golf,” he says. “There’s no point complaining about not having crowds, it could be that we don’t have crowds for a few months so it’s something we’re going to have to get used to. Things are just going to be different than they were.
We’ll just have to wait and see what it’s going to be like. I think the first week in Dallas will tell a lot about what’s going to happen going forward.
Lowry also added that he will have a new person on the bag for his first events while his current caddie Brian ‘Bo’ Martin awaits the arrival of a new baby with his wife.
“I think he’s coming back out in late July/August,” Lowry said about Bo’s return later this year.
“He’s not been able to travel solely because his wife is having a baby, nothing to with international travel. I’ve got Darren Reynolds, who’s another good Irishman on the bag for a couple of weeks.”
You can listen to the full interview here.
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