Lowry on Dunne: "Once Paul gets out the other side, he will be a stronger person and better player"
Shane Lowry has told Paul Dunne he will emerge a better and stronger player no matter what happens at the Final Stage of the European Tour Qualifying School.
As Lowry enjoys a week’s R&R with his wife and baby daughter in Dubai and recharges his batteries for next week’s DP World Tour Championship finale, Dunne will tee it up in Spain on Friday as one of 156 players bidding to secure one of 25 European Tour cards at the gruelling 108-hole Q-Schoo in Tarragona.
Pro golf is world where it’s “every man for himself” and sympathy in short supply.
But Lowry genuinely feels for his former World Cup partner Dunne, who won the British Masters in 2017 and looked on top of the world only to suffer a crisis of confidence this season, missing 12 of his last 14 cuts to find himself back at the dreaded Q-School.
Even if he fails to make the top 25 who will be given full cards, Dunne (26) will still get close to 20 starts in 2020 given his category as a tournament winner and the likelihood he will receive invitations.
But while it’s all flowers and violins in Lowry’s world as he prepares to head home to polish the Claret Jug and complete the round of awards ceremonies, he sees Dunne’s plight as a reminder of the twin imposters of success and failure.
Shane Lowry
“It’s a mad game that we play,” Lowry said in Turkey on Sunday night shortly before Tyrrell Hatton walked away with a cheque for $2 million. “Sometimes, you feel like you are doing everything right and you don’t get what you deserve. And sometimes you get things that you don’t deserve.
"I said it to Paul a few weeks ago, before he played the French Open. I said, you are in the middle of a 20-odd year career and what you do the next few weeks is not going to define you as a player or as a person.
“There will be other lads at the Q-School who will be going there with a bit of confidence and Paul is maybe the least confident.
“But once Paul gets out the other side of this, he will be a stronger person for it and he will be a better player for it.”
Lowry needs no reminding that Dunne led the 2015 Open in the final round as an amateur, held off Rory McIlroy to win the 2017 British Masters with a closing 61 and finished 16th and 56th in Race to Dubai in 2017 and 2018.
“You don’t know in this game what’s around the corner,” Lowry said. “There is probably nobody out here who works as hard as Paul Dunne. He just hasn’t got his rewards this year but I am sure he will at some stage.
“Paul is going to get quite a few starts next year and even if, and I don’t know who will finish in his position this year, maybe 15 to 18 events even if he doesn’t go that well at Tour School.
“If not, it is up to him to fight his way out of it and get himself full status for the following year.
“He’s a classy player and he’s one of the best players at Tour School next week and there is no doubt about that, and he should be looking at almost going out and winning that as opposed to finishing top-25.”
As for his own game, Lowry dismissed his Turkish Airlines Open performance as a one-off.
Paul Dunne speaks to Sky Sports in Turkey just 12 months ago
“I keep saying you have ups-and-downs in this game and this week, I just put it down to a bad week and move on,” said Lowry, who was undone by an opening 72 and his failure to start well in the third round having shot 65 on Friday.
“As soon I get to Dubai very early Tuesday morning, I won’t be thinking about what happened this week. I’ll just be looking forward to the following week and trying to do my best at the DP World.
“Hopefully I can get a bit of mojo going because look, there is no doubt I am going into Dubai with a chance to win the Race to Dubai. If you can’t get up for that, you won’t be able to get up for anything.”
The days when the European Tour’s Order of Merit title was a year-long reward for consistent excellence are long gone and replaced by the volatile Final Series in the Race to Dubai, where players can take advantage of a few hot weeks late in the year to scoop the season-ending jackpot.
“Look, the Rolex Series has been an unbelievable addition to the Tour but I feel it is weighted too much to the end of the season and if I was in 10th position going into Dubai and with a chance of becoming European No. 1, I might be saying different,” said Lowry, who knows that more than half a dozen players may have a chance to be crowned European No 1 next week.
“If it wasn’t for such ‘heavy’ points the next few weeks maybe it might be down to myself and three or four of the lads going into Dubai and that would clearly be ideal for me.
“I personally think that giving so many points away this week, next week and in Dubai when some wins in Italy in a similar field or maybe a stronger field, gets fewer points is maybe not ideal.
“I feel you shouldn’t be able to back-door a Race to Dubai. That’s how I feel personally. European No. 1 is a big thing. Look at the lads who have won it over the years. It rewards consistency over a given year.
“But look, it is what it is and you have to go with it.”
For Dunne, it’s no different. Whatever happens at Lumine, he will have what’s left of 2019 and all of 2020 to take advantage of those hot weeks and rebuild.
