Shane Lowry’s second Irish Open victory comes 17 years later by a whopping double digits

National opens have been a battleground for golf’s soul in 2026 and on Sunday at the Irish Open at Doonbeg, Shane Lowry showed why.

Leading by 10 shots, thousands of fans still cared about the margin of victory. They crowded the towering dunes of Doonbeg to get a vantage point of their countryman sinking yet another birdie on the 18th hole to win the Irish Open by a record 11 shots. When the 29-footer dropped for a 63, the roar was as loud as it should be.

Golf has few tournaments outside the four majors with as much consequence and meaning than a guy winning his own national open. But not just any guy, a homegrown hero who won the Open Championship only hours away at Royal Portrush in 2019. A guy who sank the winning putt at last year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage. And not just any course either; a ruggedly handsome links on the windswept coastline of County Clare. The course’s owner, President Donald Trump, was on site and clapped in admiration beside Lowry’s runner up, Patrick Reed.

“It means a lot; honestly I'm speechless,” an emotional Lowry said of his first individual victory since the 2022 BMW PGA at Wentworth. “It's hard to talk. I just can't believe I've just done that and done it the way I've done it, as well.”

At 23 under par, Lowry claimed his second Irish Open crown but first as a professional; in 2009, as a 22-year-old, he won at County Louth (Baltray) as an amateur. DP World Tour Race to Dubai points leader Reed tied for second at 12 under with LIV golfer Joaquin Niemann.

Lowry was utterly dominant at Doonbeg. On Day 2, he fired a course record 62. On Day 3, he recorded an astonishing nine one-putts on the back nine to maintain a three-shot lead going into the final round.

His seventh DP World Tour title was never in question, especially after Lowry drove it 349 yards down the fairway on the first on Sunday before firing a 141-yard approach to 16 feet. Lowry, 39, drained the birdie and never looked back.

At the fifth, Lowry hit a sublime wedge to 10 feet and drained the birdie. But his birdie at the difficult, 221-yard par-3 seventh summed up how everything was going his way in Ireland this week. Lowry barked at his long iron tee shot to “go!” and it only carried a greenside bunker by inches. From 43 feet, his birdie putt crested a hill and broke into the cup, sending the crowd into raucous applause.

At the par-5 eighth, Lowry’s pitch for his third shot settled to four feet and he drained a fourth front-nine birdie. While his only bogey of the round came at the par-3 ninth—at which point he held an eight-shot lead over Reed—Lowry simply bounced back with a two-putt birdie at the par-5 10th. Two more birdies followed at 14 and 15.

“I said to my caddie, [because] I didn't know how I was doing, on 15 after I holed that birdie putt, I said, ‘How far ahead are we?’ He said, ‘Far enough.’ So I was happy with that.”

A runaway victory, reminiscent of Tiger Woods’s double-digit margin wins of the early 2000s, was exactly the tonic Lowry needed after a rough year when in contention. He made a double bogey one the 72nd hole when tied for the lead at the Dubai Invitational in January. Lowry then lost a three-shot lead in the final four holes of the Cognizant Classic in Florida in February, finished tied second to Nico Echavarria.

“This year has been quite difficult on the course for me; I had a few chances to win,” Lowry said. “I've had to fight a few demons off over the past few months on the course.”

Lowry’s close friend, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, knew what the comeback win meant for his brother-in-arms on the European Ryder Cup team.

“He had a couple of chances; a big chance earlier this year at the Cognizant,” McIlroy said before Lowry had completed the victory. “I felt like he never got going with his season after that. Knocked him back a little bit. To see him in contention out there, obviously the whole country would love to see him get it done, me included.”

Which brings us back to Lowry’s birdie putt on 18. The Irish crowds were as invested as they were at the beginning of the round when he led by three. They didn’t want to miss a shot of their own golf star making history.

History is easy to make at national opens, given that many are among golf’s oldest championships. They have been rightly elevated over the past two years – six of them around the world now offer the winner a start in the both the Masters and Open Championship. This year, national opens were a big part of LIV Golf’s plans for its 2.0 season in 2027. LIV wanted to include national opens in Europe, Australia and Asia in its future scheduling. But the Australian Open, and the Asian Tour, which oversees a host of national opens, each struck agreements with the DP World Tour instead, dealing a significant blow to LIV.

The significance was not lost on Lowry, whose three national opens (including the 2019 British Open) have all come on historic links courses.

“I said walking down the last … obviously Portrush [in 2019] was incredible, last year [when the British Open returned to Portrush] was incredible, and I feel like I can't better it, but look at this,” Lowry said.

“I sat last week at Croke Park [in Dublin] watching [Irish boxer] Katie Taylor [win her last fight before retirement], with almost a little bit of jealousy what she was achieving and getting to do it in front of her home fans, and I get to do it this week. This is incredible. I'm so happy.”