Niall Kelly
reports from Trump International, Doonbeg
THE OPENING DRIVE on the final day of a golf tournament can be a particularly nervy challenge, never mind when you’re trying to close out a first win in four years.
Now try doing it surrounded by Secret Service agents and a sniffer dog, with the president of the United States of America – arguably the most protected man on the planet – standing mere feet away on the side of the tee box.
What do you do?
If you’re Shane Lowry, you stripe the ball 349 yards down the fairway, fire your approach to 16 feet and roll in an opening birdie to turn your four-shot overnight lead into a five-shot one.
Circus? What circus? Doonbeg might be Donald Trump’s golf course, but on Sunday, it was Shane’s World.
US president Donald Trump welcomed Shane Lowry onto the first tee ahead of his final round. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
If Trump was under any illusions, the heaving home support set that particular record straight just after 2pm on Sunday afternoon. The reception that greeted him as he emerged from his hotel to make the short but chaotic walk to the first tee was warm, certainly, but paled in comparison to the ovation for Lowry as he took the stage.
In the battle for hearts and minds on the opening tee box, there was only one winner.
Half an hour later, Lowry had the tournament effectively won as well, blocking out the noise – and any nerves – in the perfect start. Walking off the second green, he led by six, and never looked back. When he rolled in his third birdie of the day, a highlight-reel 43-footer at the seventh, the lead was eight.
From that point on, everything else was academic in a victory that was bloodless from start to finish, with Lowry competing only against the history books: a record-breaking margin of victory of 11 shots, and a winning total of 23-under, just shy of the -24 posted by Jon Rahm in Portstewart in 2017.
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Trump gives Lowry a clenched fist as he walks off the first tee to begin his final round. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Starting the day, Jacob Skov Olesen was the only player who appeared to have any chance of turning this into a fair fight and denying Lowry a second national open to go alongside his history 2009 win as an amateur at Baltray.
But the Dane couldn’t lay a glove, finishing in a tie for seventh 14 shots back, and the best of the challenges from the rest of the field – Rasmus Neergaard Petersen and Gregorio De Lio shot joint-low rounds of 63 alongside Lowry– all started from too far back.
Not that it mattered. Lowry never showed so much as a hint of the Sunday scaries, banishing the ghosts of the two early-season misses at the Dubai Invitational and Cognizant Classic that had threatened to be the defining feature of his year, and instead, won this tournament running away.
Patrick Reed and Joaquin Niemann (-12) were closest come the finish, while Tom McKibbin closed out an impressive week as the best of the rest of the Irish contingent in tied-fifth on -10 ahead of Liam Nolan (T31, -3) and Rory McIlroy (T41, -1).
Members of An Garda Siochána watch over the course from a security tower near the first tee box. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Moments before the penultimate group of Niemann and Daniel Rodrigues arrived to begin their round, there was a flurry of activity on the walkway to the first tee. First, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his wife Mary arrived, where they were greeted by Trump’s son Eric.
Then came Trump, waving and calling out to the crowd who had gathered to watch his arrival.
“Have a good day everyone,” he said before stepping out onto the tee box to acknowledge the crowd seated behind the tee in one of the few grandstands on the course this week.
When Lowry arrived, the crowd greeted him like the champion-in-waiting. Offaly’s finest removed his hat, shook hands with Trump, and then quickly set about the business of dismantling the rest of this field.
His 16-footer for birdie at the first ensured that Saturday’s sensational streak of one-putting every hole on the back nine carried over into Sunday.
Crowds pile on to the Doonbeg dunes to watch Lowry on the third hole. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
Meanwhile, 490-odd yards away back at the first tee, Trump gathered for an impromptu media huddle with reporters, where everything from Federal Reserve rates to his relationship with Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and yes, his headline-making comments on a united Ireland – were on the agenda.
Some golf talk too, in amongst it all.
“Shane’s playing great,” Trump said. “It’s not an easy game, but he’s playing great.
“I’m having a good time: great course, nice hotel.
“Great tournament, isn’t it?”
Trump held an impromptu media briefing at the first tee after the leaders teed off for their final round. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
As the president disappeared into a swarm of Secret Service agents, his son Eric headed out onto the course to follow the opening holes of Lowry’s round, joined by his own not-insignificant security detail, and others including Larry Glick, the head of the Trump International golf portfolio.
The Trumps’ two-day visit hasn’t gone without protest and opposition, both in Dublin and in Doonbeg village itself. Three women were arrested at the course across Friday and Saturday, and appeared at a special sitting of Ennis District Court on Saturday evening.
But out on the course, the reception was a combination of curiosity and the occasional shout of “Gwan Eric” from the crowd.
All week, Doonbeg’s front nine at – which plays largely downwind – has been where the meat and drink of the scoring has occurred. Indeed, as the leaders hit the turn on Sunday, the aggregate scoring for the front nine this week stood at -261; by comparison, the back nine total was +67.
And so it proved again in this final round. With the crowd piled high on the dunes, six or seven deep in places as they scrambled for every possible vantage point, Lowry arrowed his approach to 10 foot and poured in the putt to move to 18-under, seven clear of Olesen.
Eric Trump and associates watch Lowry make par on the second hole. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
The par-three seventh has been set up by organisers as a place where the atmosphere can dial all the way up to 11, with a premium bar, and one of the few greenside grandstands to cater for around 150 spectators. A tricolour draped over the railings of the grandstand, with Lowry’s face and the caption ‘The Offaly Jesus’.
The sliding 43-footer from the front right of the green easily belonged amongst the highlights of the day, bringing the crowd to their feet. When the greenside DJ reached for an oldie but goldie in Tina Turner’s classic Simply The Best, it couldn’t have felt more appropriate.
From there, Lowry went from strength to strength, birdying the par-five eighth and immediately rectifying his only bogey of the day – and, remarkably, only his fifth of the entire week – on nine with a tap-in birdie at the 10th.
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Lowry celebrates after holing his final putt of the tournament. Liam McBurney / PA Images / Alamy
Liam McBurney / PA Images / Alamy / PA Images / Alamy
The tournament long won, he never relented, and after back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 – the latter another cert for the highlight reel from 44 feet – he turned to caddie Dermot Byrne.
“How far ahead are we?” Lowry asked.
“Far enough,” Byrne reassured him.
And while that was indisputably true, there was still time for one final flourish to top off a week that Lowry is unlikely to ever forget. After hitting into the 18th green, he briefly turned marshall as the crowds flooded the fairway behind him, threatening to swallow up Olesen who still needed to play his third shot in.
US president Donald Trump presented Lowry with the Irish Open trophy before departing for Washington. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
With fond memories of both his Open win at Portrush and his Ryder Cup heroics at Bethpage dancing through his mind, Lowry held the jubilant crowds at bay and then, with a smile and a kiss down the lens of the camera to his wife and daughters watching at home, served up his fans a crescendo like no other, a final raking birdie putt from all of 30 feet, his 28th of the week.
He looked to the sky and let out a primal roar. At the end of a tournament unlike any other, everybody else in Doonbeg was relegated to a walk-on part. This week belonged to Lowry.
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Sensational Lowry blocks out the noise to clinch Irish Open in record-breaking style
THE OPENING DRIVE on the final day of a golf tournament can be a particularly nervy challenge, never mind when you’re trying to close out a first win in four years.
Now try doing it surrounded by Secret Service agents and a sniffer dog, with the president of the United States of America – arguably the most protected man on the planet – standing mere feet away on the side of the tee box.
What do you do?
If you’re Shane Lowry, you stripe the ball 349 yards down the fairway, fire your approach to 16 feet and roll in an opening birdie to turn your four-shot overnight lead into a five-shot one.
Circus? What circus? Doonbeg might be Donald Trump’s golf course, but on Sunday, it was Shane’s World.
If Trump was under any illusions, the heaving home support set that particular record straight just after 2pm on Sunday afternoon. The reception that greeted him as he emerged from his hotel to make the short but chaotic walk to the first tee was warm, certainly, but paled in comparison to the ovation for Lowry as he took the stage.
In the battle for hearts and minds on the opening tee box, there was only one winner.
Half an hour later, Lowry had the tournament effectively won as well, blocking out the noise – and any nerves – in the perfect start. Walking off the second green, he led by six, and never looked back. When he rolled in his third birdie of the day, a highlight-reel 43-footer at the seventh, the lead was eight.
From that point on, everything else was academic in a victory that was bloodless from start to finish, with Lowry competing only against the history books: a record-breaking margin of victory of 11 shots, and a winning total of 23-under, just shy of the -24 posted by Jon Rahm in Portstewart in 2017.
Starting the day, Jacob Skov Olesen was the only player who appeared to have any chance of turning this into a fair fight and denying Lowry a second national open to go alongside his history 2009 win as an amateur at Baltray.
But the Dane couldn’t lay a glove, finishing in a tie for seventh 14 shots back, and the best of the challenges from the rest of the field – Rasmus Neergaard Petersen and Gregorio De Lio shot joint-low rounds of 63 alongside Lowry– all started from too far back.
Not that it mattered. Lowry never showed so much as a hint of the Sunday scaries, banishing the ghosts of the two early-season misses at the Dubai Invitational and Cognizant Classic that had threatened to be the defining feature of his year, and instead, won this tournament running away.
Patrick Reed and Joaquin Niemann (-12) were closest come the finish, while Tom McKibbin closed out an impressive week as the best of the rest of the Irish contingent in tied-fifth on -10 ahead of Liam Nolan (T31, -3) and Rory McIlroy (T41, -1).
Moments before the penultimate group of Niemann and Daniel Rodrigues arrived to begin their round, there was a flurry of activity on the walkway to the first tee. First, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his wife Mary arrived, where they were greeted by Trump’s son Eric.
Then came Trump, waving and calling out to the crowd who had gathered to watch his arrival.
“Have a good day everyone,” he said before stepping out onto the tee box to acknowledge the crowd seated behind the tee in one of the few grandstands on the course this week.
When Lowry arrived, the crowd greeted him like the champion-in-waiting. Offaly’s finest removed his hat, shook hands with Trump, and then quickly set about the business of dismantling the rest of this field.
His 16-footer for birdie at the first ensured that Saturday’s sensational streak of one-putting every hole on the back nine carried over into Sunday.
Meanwhile, 490-odd yards away back at the first tee, Trump gathered for an impromptu media huddle with reporters, where everything from Federal Reserve rates to his relationship with Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and yes, his headline-making comments on a united Ireland – were on the agenda.
Some golf talk too, in amongst it all.
“Shane’s playing great,” Trump said. “It’s not an easy game, but he’s playing great.
“I’m having a good time: great course, nice hotel.
“Great tournament, isn’t it?”
As the president disappeared into a swarm of Secret Service agents, his son Eric headed out onto the course to follow the opening holes of Lowry’s round, joined by his own not-insignificant security detail, and others including Larry Glick, the head of the Trump International golf portfolio.
The Trumps’ two-day visit hasn’t gone without protest and opposition, both in Dublin and in Doonbeg village itself. Three women were arrested at the course across Friday and Saturday, and appeared at a special sitting of Ennis District Court on Saturday evening.
But out on the course, the reception was a combination of curiosity and the occasional shout of “Gwan Eric” from the crowd.
All week, Doonbeg’s front nine at – which plays largely downwind – has been where the meat and drink of the scoring has occurred. Indeed, as the leaders hit the turn on Sunday, the aggregate scoring for the front nine this week stood at -261; by comparison, the back nine total was +67.
And so it proved again in this final round. With the crowd piled high on the dunes, six or seven deep in places as they scrambled for every possible vantage point, Lowry arrowed his approach to 10 foot and poured in the putt to move to 18-under, seven clear of Olesen.
The par-three seventh has been set up by organisers as a place where the atmosphere can dial all the way up to 11, with a premium bar, and one of the few greenside grandstands to cater for around 150 spectators. A tricolour draped over the railings of the grandstand, with Lowry’s face and the caption ‘The Offaly Jesus’.
The sliding 43-footer from the front right of the green easily belonged amongst the highlights of the day, bringing the crowd to their feet. When the greenside DJ reached for an oldie but goldie in Tina Turner’s classic Simply The Best, it couldn’t have felt more appropriate.
From there, Lowry went from strength to strength, birdying the par-five eighth and immediately rectifying his only bogey of the day – and, remarkably, only his fifth of the entire week – on nine with a tap-in birdie at the 10th.
The tournament long won, he never relented, and after back-to-back birdies on 14 and 15 – the latter another cert for the highlight reel from 44 feet – he turned to caddie Dermot Byrne.
“How far ahead are we?” Lowry asked.
“Far enough,” Byrne reassured him.
And while that was indisputably true, there was still time for one final flourish to top off a week that Lowry is unlikely to ever forget. After hitting into the 18th green, he briefly turned marshall as the crowds flooded the fairway behind him, threatening to swallow up Olesen who still needed to play his third shot in.
With fond memories of both his Open win at Portrush and his Ryder Cup heroics at Bethpage dancing through his mind, Lowry held the jubilant crowds at bay and then, with a smile and a kiss down the lens of the camera to his wife and daughters watching at home, served up his fans a crescendo like no other, a final raking birdie putt from all of 30 feet, his 28th of the week.
He looked to the sky and let out a primal roar. At the end of a tournament unlike any other, everybody else in Doonbeg was relegated to a walk-on part. This week belonged to Lowry.
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county clare Donald Trump Doonbeg Golf Irish Open Shane Lowry the champion