Shane Lowry reckons he’s on track to make the European Ryder Cup team automatically or at least make it impossible for Pádraig Harrington to avoid handing him one of his three picks.

After finishing tied fourth alongside the captain in the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, the Open champion is upbeat about his chances of making his debut at Whistling Straits in September and potentially adding a second Major to his resumé soon.

“I'm going to be disappointed to be giving back the Claret Jug, but hopefully I'm only giving it back for a few days,” Lowry joked in a teleconference ahead of his defence of the Claret Jug at Royal St George’s where the R&A is “optimistic” it will have at least 25 pc and possibly as much as 75pc of the maximum 40,000 daily crowd in July.

“I can assure you that it is in good shape and it will be coming back nice and shiny,” added Lowry, who later revealed that he has had to have the Claret Jug repaired during its 22-month journey in his care.

It’s now in almost perfect condition, just like his game after he came close to winning the PGA Championship and took a big leap up the Ryder Cup standings to 10th in the race for nine automatic spots in Pádraig Harrington’s European team.

“I can only put my best foot forward,” Lowry said. “I'm in a good position now to go ahead and make the team this year. I got some nice World Ranking points last week. I'm playing for plenty of World Ranking points over the next few months. If I play good enough or play to the best of my ability over the next few months, I could make that team.

“That’s my main goal, to obviously go and make it. If I don't make it, to be so close that I kind of make his decision for him because even though the whole rookie thing will be talked about, I don't feel like a rookie.”

He was thrilled to impress Harrington when they played together on Sunday and knows he could save his pal a wildcard headache if he hits form over the next 10 weeks.

“It was nice to perform in the heat of the battle there on the back nine in a major championship,” he said. “I have to say it was very satisfying because, look, Pádraig knows what I can do. He knows what my game is about.”

Lowry believes he has the game and maturity to add to his Major haul sooner rather than later, partly because he’s been around for 12 years but also because he’s been living and working in ideal conditions in the US, where he has recently bought a home.

“Being able to practice and play over here in these conditions helps me play on the PGA Tour and the big events over here,” he said, assessing the reasons why he’s now a consistent performer in big events. “So I would say just spending time over here, spending time in this climate, spending time playing on the PGA Tour over the last number of years, my game has matured, I've matured as a person, and I feel like, yeah, most -- probably 90 per cent of my game is quite consistent at the minute.”

The Clara man felt he might have won at Kiawah Island had his putter warmed up and that remains a work in progress before the plays the Memorial next week, then returns for the US Open at Torrey Pines.

“I'm just kind of struggling to find consistency with my putting,” he said. “I really feel like if I do that, I can go ahead and win big tournaments again. But it's all about putting yourself there, and I put myself there last weekend, and it was really exciting. 

“The buzz I get from that is the reason I get up every morning, it's the reason I go out and practice, and hopefully I can keep doing that and give myself a couple of chances over the next few years to maybe knock off another one.”

He said before heading for Kiawah Island that he expected to do well because he loves a big week. But where that belief came from — bar the obvious benefits of winning the Open at Royal Portrush — is a mystery to him.

“I don't really know,” he said. “Obviously, look, standing on the 18th green at Portrush with the Claret Jug in your hand kind of gives you a lot of confidence in yourself, and I feel like, look, I don't know what it is, but I just love major championships. I just love big weeks. I love the atmosphere.

“To be honest, last year when we played the PGA and the U.S. Open and the Masters with no crowds I felt like I struggled. I felt like it was just hard to kind of get yourself to that level where the intensity that you really wanted to be at. So it was nice to have that back at the Masters somewhat this year, and then the PGA last week was really, really cool to have the crowds back. And even just seeing the scenes of Phil walking up 18, it's great to have that back in sport.

“Like Martin [Slumber] said at the start, it's been an incredibly difficult kind of 14 months for everyone, and I think sport does have a huge part to play in everyone's kind of well-being and health, mental health. I think people are -- even just talking to my dad yesterday, him sitting at home watching that on TV kind of gives him a bit of a boost and stuff like that.

“When did I feel like I got my game plan? I don't know. I feel like I'm 34 now. I feel like I'm maturing as a golfer, as a person. So I feel like when I get to those big weeks I kind of know what's going to happen. You're going to have ups and downs. You're going to have difficult times on the course and you're going to have good runs, and when you're having good runs you need to take advantage of that.

“I did that last week, and to be honest, like I'm delighted I had a top-5 finish, a great week, but I was quite disappointed leaving the golf course on Sunday because I feel like that is a tournament that I could have won last week. A lot of my game was very good. I struggled a little bit on the greens, but I think a lot of people were. The greens were weird, quite hard to hole putts on.

“Phil obviously holed a lot of putts the first couple of days, but I found them quite hard to hole putts on and quite hard to read personally. Even the putt I had on 18 on Sunday, I misread it by about a cup from 10 feet. It probably looked like one of the worst putts you could ever hit, but I actually felt like I hit a decent putt and I missed by a cup left. So that was the type of week I had, yeah.”

Winning back to back Open Championship is a goal but he has little to go on in terms of positive experiences in Sandwich, where he failed to qualify in 2011.

“I played the Amateur Championship in 2006 there and I shot 81 in the one round that I played around there, and I haven't been back since. No, I'm looking forward to it. Obviously, I watched Darren win his Open there, and I know it's one of the trickiest venues we have, especially if you get a good UK summer. It's so far south that it can get firm and fast and play like proper links golf. So it'll be a great test. Just the whole experience of going there as defending champion, I'm really looking forward to it.”

He must return the Claret Jug by Monday of Open week but and promises it will be gleaming even if it has had to go to the silversmiths to be straightened after he spotted a bend in it as it went through the scanner at the airport.

He’s happy he now has his replica after seeing the magical quality the trophy retains for die-hard fans worldwide,

“It's funny, right, I did put a few drinks in it but not that much. We filled it a couple of times afterwards, and then we actually had a nice dinner with all my team that Christmas that we drink some nice wine out of it.

When you have the Claret Jug with you and somebody that's really interested in golf or somebody that really loves their golf, when you show them that piece of silverware -- there's one story I remember. I had the Claret Jug with me at the Race to Dubai at the end of 2019 and I was wheeling it through the hotel, and this guy was there and he stopped me, and he's like, Is that the Claret Jug? And I was like, Yeah, and we started to talk.

“Next thing, he's like -- he begged me could he see it, so I opened up the box and I showed him and he held the Claret Jug and he started to cry because he was holding the Claret Jug. That's what that trophy actually means to people that love their golf.

“Just to have it in my possession for that length of time and being able to kind of share it with all my friends and family and other people has been just incredible. Obviously, I've got my replica now as well and I'll have that forevermore, but it'll be a sad time giving it back. But hopefully, I get it back at some stage, whether it be St George's this year or maybe another time down the road.”

Meanwhile, R&A’s Chief Executive Martin Slumbers does not rule out a return to Royal Portrush for The Open in 2025.

“We've obviously got St Andrews in '22, then Hoylake and then Royal Troon. But I think it's safe to say that Portrush was something special. A lot of people think it was right up there amongst the finest Opens, and I am sure it will stage another Open in the not-too-distant future.”

If Lowry is upbeat about his Ryder Cup chances, Graeme McDowell’s suffered another blow after he withdrew from Final Qualifying for the US Open in Texas.

The 2010 champion, who opened with a 70, pulled out after the weather-delayed 36-hole qualifier for 10 spots at Dallas Athletic Club was delayed further by rain yesterday.

McDowell, who missed the Masters and the PGA and has yet to qualify for The Open, was one-under overall through 15 holes at a venue where 10 players played off for the last spot on four-under.

Scores

Cork amateur Paul Buckley also missed out on 10-over after rounds of 75 and 77.