This is a life changer for Shane - Rory
Shane Lowry attending the media in Dublin on Tuesday
Rory McIlroy admits he needs to change his mental approach to the majors but told Open champion Shane Lowry that winning the Claret Jug will change his life forever.
Speaking ahead of the WGC FedEx St Jude Invitational in Memphis, the world number three confessed that he was shocked to feel his hand trembling as he put the tee in the ground for the first round at Royal Portrush, where he ran an quadruple bogey eight on the first hole and shot 79.
He revealed that had to choke back tears as many as four times throughout his battling second round 65 due to the warmth of the crowd reaction but hailed what was a “fairytale ending” to the event with pal Lowry claiming his first major.
“He texted me on Friday night with words of encouragement,” McIlroy said. “He said to me, ‘I’ll see you in Memphis’. And I said, ‘I hope I don’t see you in Memphis because hopefully you are still drinking out of the Claret Jug’. That obviously came to fruition so that was nice.
“But yeah, I texted him straight after and I just, you know, I sort of said to him, look, it's going to change your life. It's so different. You saw it yesterday when he went back home to his hometown and the amount of people that came out to see him. It is a life-changer, especially doing it there at Portrush. I mean, he's going to be a national hero for the rest of his life.
“So I just said I was so happy for him, for his wife Wendy, daughter Iris, his mom and dad, all his team. I said to him, ‘Look, we're going to go out for dinner in New York during the Northern Trust.’ I said, ‘I need to bring you out for dinner and have to have a couple sort of celebratory drinks.’
“So I'm looking forward to seeing him and just so happy for him. I mean, I've spent a lot of time with him, and our wives, Erica and Wendy, have become very close over the last couple years, so it's always great to see friends do so well.”
McIlroy revealed that he was shocked he felt so nervous on the first tee and needs to reassess his mental approach to majors going forward even if the warmth of the crowd for his second round 65 made a missed cut feel less disappointing.
“it's such a weird thing to say, but, you know, to think about a missed cut being one of the best experiences you ever had on a golf course,” he said. “So I guess there is some sort of silver lining in there this year.”
As for the first round, he said: “I was so relaxed in the warm-up, I was so relaxed on the putting green 10 minutes before. Once I was announced and I put my tee in the ground, I sort of noticed my hand trembling. I was like, jeez, this is different.”
He added: “I think I have learned a lot from the four majors this year. How I started, how I played in them and how I tried to approach them.
“I almost downplayed them this year and tried to treat them like other events and I have realised they are not like any other event and you need to have a different mindset and prepare differently.
“It tried different strategy this year. It didn’t quite work for me and I need to reassess that going forward."
“I've tried to take the emotion out of playing golf”
He added: “I mean, sometimes I've tried to take the emotion out of playing golf. I try to think logically and try to be very stoic about the whole thing, but I was emotional on Friday and I was still able to play good golf in spite of that.
“So I thought that was a good lesson as well. Sometimes a bit of emotion on the course isn't a bad thing. It's just about how you can handle it and resetting in between shots. The standing ovations that I was getting walking on the greens and then from walking from greens to tees, that's when it really hit me. So I at least had a little bit of time to gather myself and get ready for the next shot.“
I suggested a different club to Harry
As for his tee shot out of bounds on the opening day, he admitted he thought about hitting driver.
“I don't know why. First tee shot there wasn't really a comfortable tee shot for me anyway last week. You know, in hindsight I probably should have just hit driver instead of trying to hit an iron down there and trying to -- should have probably just freewheeled with driver. I think subconsciously I knew I was uncomfortable because I suggested a different club to Harry and he said, "Well, this is the club you've hit every day in practice and it's done well. Why would you want to hit something different?" And I'm like, ‘I don't know.’
“Yeah, I was surprised with how nervous I was, but it came on so rapidly. That was the thing that was different about it. It wasn't like it built up during the warm-up; I was totally fine. And then once my name was announced, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a little different.’ Sort of weird, but anyways... “
European Ryder Cup captain Pádraig Harrington and West Waterford’s Seamus Power are in action in the modified stableford format Barracuda Championship in Nevada.
“Shane winning as a success for everybody on our small, little island” - Pádraig Harrington
And Harrington eloquently put in perspective the magnitude of Lowry’s win for the entire island of Ireland.
“I'm personally delighted for Shane to win,” Harrington said. “He's a friend of mine. And I was thrilled for that.
“But I think we take things very personally in Ireland. We take our sports personally. And Shane's win was a win for the Ireland. It was a win for the whole country.
“Everybody in the country was behind him and backing him. We saw the success of the Open at Royal Portrush and Shane winning as a success for everybody on our small, little island.
“And we like to punch above our weight in Ireland. And winning big things like that and doing incredible stuff like that, we take it to heart. And the whole country gets behind it.
“And we're very good in Ireland at supporting our sportsmen and people who are doing well. We certainly get behind them. And that was a perfect example to see the outpouring.
“It’s still probably front-page headlines at home. The celebrations for the last three days are front-page headlines. That just shows how big a deal it is in Ireland.”
Played at Reno’s Montreaux Golf and Country Club, the Barracuda Championship is a key event for Power who is 143rd in the FedExCup standings with only next week’s Wyndham Championship remaining to make the top 125 who qualify for the Playoffs and keep their full PGA Tour privileges.
Attacking golf is rewarded in Reno with eight points for an albatross, five for an eagle, two for a birdie, zero for a par, minus one for a bogey and minus three for a double bogey or worse.
Meanwhile, Des Smyth could be making his final appearance in The Senior Open at the place where he said goodbye to the amateur ranks.
Now 66, the Meath man played for Ireland in the Home Internationals at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 1973 before going on to have a storied professional career.
In a nice twist of fate, his long-time caddie Ray Latchford also caddied for him in those international matches 46 years ago.
Smyth, who hinted earlier this year that he was coming to the end of his competitive career, is joined at the Lancashire links by debutant Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley.
The LPGA Tour is in Europe this week for the fourth of the five professional majors, The Evian Championship.
Forrest Little amateur Julie McCarthy is the only Irish player in the field having earned an exemption as the leading player in the Arnold Palmer Cup in June.
