Be Right
Open Championship 2022: Shane Lowry talks Open prep, his 8 on the Road Hole and the first drink he put into the claret jug
Simon Bruty
Not all major championship debuts are created equal, something Shane Lowry knows all too well. The Irishman first teed it up in a major at the 2010 Open Championship, which was held on the Old Course at St. Andrews, this week's host venue.
"I couldn't get over how big it was," Lowry said on this week's episode of Be Right. "The size of everything, the grandstands, the crowds. Everything about the place was just really, really cool. I played really well—I'll always remember I played with Vijay [Singh] on Saturday, in the group in front of Tiger [Woods], and I remember the crowds were something that you can't really describe."
Lowry handled the scene quite well, tying for 37th in his Open, and major, debut. Five years later, when the Open returned to the Home of Golf, he didn't have as much luck, missing the cut by two strokes thanks to a disastrous quadruple-bogey 8 at the Road Hole on Thursday.
Every Hole At The Old Course
Golf Digest's Architecture Editor Emeritus, Ron Whitten, narrates this spectacular hole by hole drone tour of The Old Course at St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland.
Four years later, the Irishman captured his career-defining victory, winning the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush. He's back at St. Andrews for a third time in 2022, and he's certainly playing well enough to potentially win a second claret jug. In 2022 alone, Lowry has made 14 starts worldwide, and he's finished T-14 or better in nine of them.
Despite the strong run of form, Lowry has not won since the 2019 Open, a victory that produced one of the better celebrations in recent memory. In our full discussion with Lowry, he reveals the first thing he drank out of the claret jug that year, and he tells us why he doesn't need to go overboard when it comes to prepping for the Old Course. We also make Open Championship picks with one of the sharpest U.K. golf bettors in the industry, Steve Bamford.
Please, have a listen to the full conversation below:
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Thanks to our friends at Jameson for giving us time with Lowry. The Irishman just agreed to a three-year partnership with the iconic Irish brand to become a brand ambassador. For more, click here.