Shane Lowry admits he is battling fatigue ahead of his debut at the FedEx Cup Tour Championship at East Lake which will be his fifth tournament in as many weeks and insists he won’t spend the $25 million winners cheque on attempting to buy Pat Ruddy’s The European Club.
The famous Wicklow links went up for sale earlier this month for at least €35 million as Ruddy bids farewell to his iconic design after 37 years.
Lowry faces a seven shot deficit to Scottie Scheffler before he tees off on Thursday but quipped a frank “no” when asked if he would stump up the cash for Ruddy’s track.
After the Tour Championship, Lowry will have a well earned rest before making the trip to Royal County Down for the Amgen Irish Open, a title he won as an amateur in Baltray in 2009 while RCD plays host for the first time since 2015.
“Yeah, obviously going and playing the Irish Open, it’s always one of the weeks at the start of the year where I look and I want to perform that week,” said Lowry.
“Going to Royal County Down, I haven’t played there since we were there in 2015 or so, around then. So yeah, going back there is going to be cool.
“It’s obviously one of the great golf courses in the world, one of the great venues. I just hope we get some good weather. If we get some good weather it’ll be an amazing week, and, yeah, hopefully I can do well.
“I’m going back next weekend. I get to play some links golf, so that’ll take a little bit of getting used to again, but yeah, looking forward to it.”
It’s been an extremely consistent year for the Clara man who has enjoyed his best season on the PGA Tour, climbing to 13th in the FedEx Cup rankings which saw him comfortably make the top-30 for the Tour Championship for the first time.
Lowry began the year on the outside looking in when it came to the signature events and even drifted outside the top-50 in the world rankings, putting his participation in next year’s Masters in jeopardy.
A timely Mastercard invite to the Arnold Palmer Invitational Signature Event in Bay Hill in March proved fruitful where he finished third and earned his way back into the Signature Events and he has blossomed since, winning alongside Rory McIlroy at the Zurich Classic.
|Yeah, it’s nice to be here. It’s almost embarrassing that I haven’t been here. I’ve been a pro a long time and whatever. But yeah, I haven’t been here. But it is nice to be here this week, and I feel like my game is okay. Golf course is going to play quite difficult.
“Happy to be here at East Lake. It’s always a goal at the start of the year, and thankfully this year I got to fulfill it.”
Lowry is struggling with fatigue after playing in the Olympics, the season ending regular event the Wyndham Championship and the opening two FedEx Cup Playoff events.
“The last four weeks haven’t gone his way, including missing his first cut since January at the Wyndham, a tournament he only played in to finish inside the top-10 on the Comcast rankings, but the world number 32 is confident he can jig himself up for the big occasion once again.
“I’m pretty tired, but I think I’ve managed myself pretty well over the last five weeks. The last couple of days I’ve played nine holes but I’ve took it quite easy. Just tried to get to know the golf course. I’ve done a small bit of practice.
“But I’m feeling okay. Look, if your adrenaline and if you can’t get up for a tournament like this and you can’t keep it going for four days on a week like this you’re in the wrong game, so I’ll be fine.
“I missed the cut at the Wyndham, so it wasn’t great. I was very annoyed with that, actually. I hadn’t missed a cut since the start of the year, in Palm Springs, so that was disappointing.
“I wanted to finish in that top 10 in the Comcast for obvious reasons. I wanted to give this FedExCup as good a run as I can. I felt like going into Wyndham, I felt like this was probably going to be one of my best opportunities to give this FedExCup a run.
“Look, the last three weeks haven’t really went how I would have liked. I felt like I played — after the first round last week I felt like I played really good golf over the last three days, and to end up with a half decent result.
“Would I rethink it? No, I’d probably do the same thing. I like the Wyndham. I like the golf course. The weather was unfortunate that week.
“To be honest, when I look back on missing that cut and not having to do the 36 round before going to Memphis, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world.”