Walking along the sunny streets of Madrid, the acciona Open de Espana was being advertised everywhere possible, including on the bus stop billboards. But the headline player being promoted was not Jon Rahm it was Shane Lowry.
All that will have changed now in the lead up to this week’s event at Club de Campo Villa de Madrid after two-time major winner and former Spanish Open champion Rahm decided to appeal the fines imposed on him by the DP World Tour thus making him eligible to compete.
Lowry may not be the main attraction anymore but he is happy to see Rahm and Tyrrell Hatton in the Spanish capital this week with the LIV golf pair looking to play the required four DP World Tour events to be eligible for the 2025 Ryder Cup.
“I’ve said it all along and I was very happy to see Jon do what he did,” Lowry told Denis Kirwan of Meridian Media at Wentworth.
“I don’t think any one player is bigger than the Ryder Cup and I feel like we need him. Looking forward to seeing him this week, haven’t seen Tyrrell in a while so I am very good friends with Tyrrell and have been for a very long time so I’m sure we will have dinner and catch up.
“Looking forward to Madrid I haven’t been there in years so looking forward to enjoying a great week and enjoying the hospitality.”
Lowry is playing his ninth event in eleven weeks on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour and his return to Europe has been a frustrating one as back to back 12th place finishes have left the Offaly man annoyed that he hasn’t been able to give himself chances to get over the winning line.
The 37-year-old is running on an energy tank that is close to empty and is unsure whether he will play again after next week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
“I’ll play the Dunhill after this and you won’t see much of me on a golf course until January, I’ll maybe play Abu Dhabi and Dubai maybe we’ll see but other than that I need some time to rest, recover, train and try and get into a decent frame of mind and decent shape going into a big year next year.
“My pre-season prep is very important these years because I am not getting any younger so I need to be in as good a place as possible going into the season, that’s the plan for the winter and we will give the season a good run. I have four tournaments left this year and hopefully I can come out the right side of one of them.”