Bernie McGuire at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
Shane Lowry will have played the most tournaments in seven seasons when he finally puts away the clubs in six weeks time after competing in Dubai.
Lowry will contest his 25th world-ranked event of the year at this week’s Dunhill Links Championship, ahead of completing a 16th pro career season with the back-to-back Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
All up, it will be 28 tournaments including the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for the current World No. 28 and the joint most he will have contested, having also played that many in 2018, 2014 and 2010.
And Lowry will end 2024 by putting out in Dubai in what also will be his 399th world-ranked tournament since capturing the 2009 Irish Open as an amateur in May 2009.
Lowry has returned to the Dunhill Links for a first occasion since 2022, in a 2024 season sprinkled with plenty of good results, the best being third earlier in the year at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and a super pair of sixth place finishes at the PGA Championship and the 152nd Open.
He also is coming off three DP World Tour events in as many weeks, including T12th at the Amgen Irish Open and BMW PGA Championship while he shared 13th place in last week’s Spanish Open.
“The last three weeks have been good and though there’s not been any real fireworks and while finishing just outside the top-10 in all three, it wasn’t quite amazing but there was a lot of good golf played,” said Lowry after having played a nine-hole practice round in the company of Padraig Harrington at Kingsbarns Links.
“When you look back on my year, I’ve been there or thereabouts for much of the year and that’s been encouraging.
“Though this will be my 10th tournament, including the Olympics, since the Open Championship, so I will play a lot of golf this year. It’s also been a lot of good golf including the last three weeks back home here in Europe.
“Mentally, I have been very good while the game has been good.
“Of course, it would be great to finish off my year with a win and I’ve got three decent-size tournaments to try and achieve that goal.”
Though Lowry would dearly love to tick the box for pro win No. 7, it has also been just a month since qualifying for the 2025 European Ryder Cup team got underway and already Lowry has his sights set on teeing-up on Long Island.
He’s currently lying 21st on the points table with still some 11 months till automatic qualifying for Luke Donald’s side winds-up on Sunday, August 25th next year.
“Getting back onto the European Ryder Cup team will be my main focus next year,” he said.
“I found myself watching TV snippets of last week’s Presidents Cup and that’s also helped to whet my appetite. So, I really want to be there at Bethpage Black and playing, and I want to be on the winning side.
“That is honestly purely what I will be working towards next year. It is going to require a lot more work and ‘prep’ on my part than previous Ryder Cups but I’m sure I will be ready.”
That’s more than ample time for Lowry to book his place in a third straight European side however Lowry is very conscious that he’s getting older and is now one of the seniors vying for a return place in Donald’s team.
“I came out at the start of this season soon turning 37 in April, so I am kind of getting old and you do feel it,” he said.
“I recall being at the Players Championship back in March and there was just one player teeing in his 40s and that was Adam Scott.
“So, golf is getting younger and looking back to the start of this year there was a fraction of doubt in my head but then I put that thought to bed pretty quick and I performed well in some big tournaments.”
Lowry tees-up in this week’s Dunhill Links having missed the halfway cut in his last appearance in the team event two years ago and his best finish at the Home of Golf was tied for third in 2013.
“I’ve been very happy with how things have performed for me”, he said.
“Saying that, I am looking forward so much to this week as St. Andrews is always a really beautiful place, and it’s always nice to be here and staying at the Old Course Hotel is just great.”