Shane Lowry - Official topic

[azoffaly]

Well done Shane, delighted for him, and for Brendy and Bridgie.

[Lone Shark]

Truly fantastic stuff. Shane has been a fantastic talent for some years now but also gave all the signs that he was willing to put the work in to maximise his ability, while also appreciating the huge level of support he got from his parents in terms of allowing him to develop on the amateur scene. Those sacrifices appear to be paying off now in that he has become a top class golfer capable of achieving great things on the professional tour while still operating in the amateur ranks where the focus is about the game and little else.

It's a great story no matter whether you know him, know his family or simply look on from elsewhere. I hope whatever decision he makes now regarding turning pro now or later turns out to be the right one for him and that he continues to do well at but also enjoy the game at whatever level he takes part.

[black and red exile]

Had RTE 1 radio on in the car on the way to the double header in Kinnity and it was gripping stuff. Not a golf fan but I arrived in Kinnity at 5.20 and didn't get out of the car until 5.55 with the unbelievable tension on the radio. Brilliant stuff Shane, the whole of Offaly is so proud of you.

[Dynamite]

Meant to say , the Clara crowd did Offaly proud. A load of Scanlons and the rest of Clara gave a great rendition of the Offaly rover in the bar in Baltray. The regular golf crowd didn't know what to make of us. There might be a link to a video of it soon.

As for turning pro, I think he'd be mad not to. The Walker Cup is a fantastic honour and it is highly regarded in America. It's a great tournament for raising your profile with regard to getting sponsorship. His profile will never be as high as it is now unless he wins a major, so he'll be offered massive sponsorship deals this week I'd imagine. So to be honest I don't see the poin in hanging around for the walker cup. Sure, it's an honour, but he could be pushing for Ryder cup places a few years down the line if he keeps going, and that would be a far bigger honour. So why not turn pro, make the best use of his two year exemption and play as many events as he can, earn himself a few pounds and get loads of experience on the European Tour. It can only be good for his game to be playing with the best right away.

[TheManFromFerbane]

The fact that he's even debating it tells me that the Walker Cup is very important to him though. It's interesting alright, I just hope he makes the best decision for himself in the long run.

[Bord na Mona man]

Had RTE 1 radio on in the car on the way to the double header in Kinnity and it was gripping stuff. Not a golf fan but I arrived in Kinnity at 5.20 and didn't get out of the car until 5.55 with the unbelievable tension on the radio. Brilliant stuff Shane, the whole of Offaly is so proud of you.

I was in the sweltering heat watching Real Betis vs Almeria myself, while the drama was unfolding

[turk]

Nice to see the big "Welcome to Lowry Country" posters on the approach roads into Ferbane!

[Bord na Mona man]

The reign of Shane Lowry
22-year-old amateur golfer hit the big time at the Irish Open — and so did the pal who backed him at 3,000-1

David Walsh

The idea for the photograph was simple. To get Shane Lowry, his dad Brendan and his uncles Sean and Michael, together at Esker Hills golf club; to then put a gaelic football in the young man’s hands and golf clubs in the hands of his dad and uncles. The older men had played together on the Offaly team that won the most exciting All Ireland football final of all time and just three days before, young Shane had won the most sensational victory in the history of the Irish Open Golf Championship.

They went to a small patch of elevated ground overlooking the sixth green. As they took their places, Shane let the gaelic football slip from his grasp and the ball bounced into high grass three feet beneath where they stood. It should have stayed there but as Shane moved to retrieve it, the ball trickled out of the grass and down onto a road below.

Father, son and uncles were now watching with wonder because the ball somehow crossed the road, got through a second corridor of high grass and rolled further down towards the huge bunker guarding the left side of the sixth green. They thought it wasn’t moving fast enough to get to the trap but it did and then, remarkably, it kept going. Gaining speed off the downslope of the trap, it spilled out onto the green.

Esker Hills’ sixth green is a brutal two-tiered putting surface that slopes from back to front and on an average day breaks 40 hearts. On this afternoon the flagstaff was positioned front right. Having scaled two banks of high grass, a road, a sand trap, the football made a 70-yard journey to get to the green and then rolled across the upper tier before taking the left to right break and beginning a trek down towards the hole.

As it did, they all willed it to hit the pin. ‘Go on, go on,’ they shouted, and this white gaelic football, on terrain that was totally alien, moved like a guided missile and hit the flagstick right in the middle. By now it had travelled about a 100 yards on what was perhaps the most magical adventure ever undertaken by a football.

“You know what,” said the photographer to young Shane, “you should go out and buy yourself a lottery ticket.” The thing was; Shane had done that the previous week. And his numbers had come up.

Six days before, Shane Lowry put his bag of Titleist golf clubs into the back of his Mitsubishi Colt van, picked up his friend and caddie Dave “Shaper” Reynolds and left their home town of Clara in County Offaly, pointed the Colt east and headed off for Castlebellingham in County Louth. Lowry, a 22-year-old amateur golfer, had been invited to play in the Irish Open Golf Championship at Baltray and though he travelled more in hope than confidence, there was no denying the excitement.

If you’d asked him on that Monday afternoon what he was looking forward to, he would have first mentioned the practice round he was going to play with Rory McIlroy on the following day. McIlroy and he were once part of the same Irish team and it would be good to see him again. But there was more to this golfing life than glamour. Lowry had rented a house in Castlebellingham for the week because being a bit far from the course, it was less expensive.

They called him Shaper from his gaelic football days with Offaly. He was a useful forward on the team that won the Leinster Championship in 1997 and the name came from the way Reynolds looked on and off the pitch. Had he been a racehorse, the prize for “best turned out” would have been his, for keeps. Before taking a free, he would tug on his upturned collar, pull them up a little more. Cantona without the poetry, someone said he was a proper shaper, and the name stuck.

When Shaper was star on the Offaly team, Shane Lowry was ten years old and a fan. The relationship deepened five or six years later when Shaper came back from New York one summer with a brand new Titleist Vokey wedge in his golf bag.

“Where did you get that?” asked the now 16-year-old Lowry.

“America,” said Shaper. “You can have it if you want.”

“No, I couldn’t take it. It’s brand new.”

“It’s yours,” said Shaper.

Shaper eventually came home from New York and by then Shane Lowry was one of the Ireland’s better young golfers. Watching him play, Shaper thought the kid could do with a caddie and offered his services. At the time he was a self-employed building contractor and took days off and holidays to carry his young friend’s bag. His only payment was the joy of being inside the ropes when this young fellow swung a golf club.

On the way to Castlebellingham, Shane spoke about the house, it was costing just 400 euro for the week but heating and electricity were extra. Shaper said that if things went well, Shane was well capable of making the cut. “Don’t be talking like that,” said Lowry. As they were leaving the house on the Tuesday morning for that practice round with McIlroy, Shane turned all serious. “Your job this week,” he said to Shaper, “is to make sure that when we leave the house all the lights and the heating are turned off.”

When they got to the course, a Ban Garda stopped noticed the Offaly registration on their Mitsubishi Colt. “Up for the golf, lads,” she said. “I’m playin’ in it,” said Shane. “Yeah, right,” she said with a knowing smile.

The Lowrys from Ferbane are one of the great gaelic football families. Sean, Michael and Brendan all played in that epic 1982 All Ireland final when Offaly beat the sport’s greatest ever team, Kerry. Some, more acquainted with the family claim Eamonn was actually the most talented of the brothers all but he had a terrible temper.

About Eamonn they used to say that if he was a cow, he would fill your bucket quicker than any beast in the milking parlour but just as you were admiring the result, he would lash out with a hind leg and knock over the bucket. Sean was a very good centre back, commanding as much with his presence as his football. Michael, on the other hand, was tenacious and big hearted, the kind of selfless defender every team needed.

But Shane’s dad, Brendan, had something special. Give him six chances to score in a match and he would convert five of them – on a bad day. Brendan Lowry never made a hero out of the goalkeeper. They talk of an U.21 County Final, Ferbane against Tullamore when Brendan was announcing his talent. Ferbane were down by a point with a minute on the clock when he got the chance to kick the ball over the bar and earn his team a replay. The thought never crossed his mind because he saw only the net and his explosive shot bulged it.

“Jaysus Brendan,” said the team’s full forward Paul Mollen afterwards. “What were you thinking of going for the goal. I would have taken the point and not risked it.”

“Well Paul,” said Brendan, “I suppose that’s the difference between you and me.”

There is a gene out there, it has no name but in the world of sport, it’s precious. It allows a footballer to see the net rippling before he unleashes his shot, a tennis player to see chalk rising from the baseline before he hits that forehand and, perhaps, it is most useful in the game of golf. For the carrier of this gene sees nothing but the flag when he looking at the green. It was nature’s gift to Shane Lowry, to transport that little gene from father to son.

Sean knew it was there from the day he first played a round with Shane. It was a classic in Moate Golf Club in County Westmeath, Brendan was supposed to play but had to pull out at the eleventh hour. “Young Shane will go instead of me,” he said to his brother. Sean called round for the lad who was then 13 and had just taken up the game.

“He had a small, pencil-thin golf bag, six or seven clubs no more, like arrows in a quiver. ‘What are you playing off,’ I said. ‘Thirteen,’ said Shane. I thought that was fairly low for a newcomer and on a course he’d never seen, I didn’t expect much. What I remember is that he never asked me a question about the course, nothing about distance to the green, or the line of a putt. Nothing. He stood on the tees, saw the fairway, hit it in the fairway, saw the green and hit it on the green. And he started with seven straight pars.

“He was the most humble gossun that you’ve ever met. He had all the shots but he never let on and even when his handicap went to plus five, you still felt you were playing with a 15-handicap.”

Some days Brendan, Sean, Michael and young Shane would make a fourball and their nephew swung the club so beautifully, it made his uncles want to weep. How could you take the money from a kid with a swing like that? So they settled for mind games. “There’s a young lad,” Michael would say loud enough for everyone to hear, “who never had to wheel turf or turn hay.” “You know what Michael,” said Sean, “you’re dead right.”

Brendan Lowry didn’t get excited easily. When members at Esker Hills told him they thought his young lad had a special talent, Brendan would merely say, “Well, he spends a lot of time at it anyway.” But Brendan has always seemed more severe than he is. Being dead-eyed in front of goal was one thing, watching his son play in important golf tournaments was another. On the biggest days, Brendan would avoid people on the golf course because if someone happened to say to him that he must be proud of the lad, he would break down.

Brendan knew his son had a chance on the afternoon he won his first important tournament, the Leinster Boys Championship. That afternoon Brendan followed at a distance, not wanting his son to see him for fear it would make him nervous. So he walked behind others, stood in the background and when Shane was coming down the 18th with a chance to win the competition Brendan was watching from behind a curtain in the clubhouse. He saw Shane’s playing partner chip in from well off the green, then saw his son hole a six-foot putt. Scrutinising his boy for a reaction, Brendan picked up nothing. He reached into the hole, picked up his ball, shook the hand of his playing partner and walked off. Not a flicker to indicate whether he’d won or lost. Brendan went to greet him. “Yeah Dad, I won. Isn’t it great?” And dead-eyed, soft-hearted Brendan was impressed by that. Seriously impressed.

After two practice days at Baltray, Shane and Shaper began to feel conscious about their grand little Mitsubishi. Every other player in the tournament was being chauffeured here and there in top of the range Audis. Courtesy cars, they call them. Shaper thought they were entitled to be in a courtesy car but which of them would ask. In this respect, Shane was useless. And anyway, he liked the Mitsubishi.

The crew arrived filled the house in Castlebellingham as the week went on. Shane’s girlfriend Deirdre Molloy, his young brother Alan, his uncles Mark and John Scanlon, his best friend Noel Henry, all packed like happy little sandiness onto beds, airbeds and couch. And they watched television in the evenings, mostly with their overcoats on and the lights off.

Shane began his first professional tournament with a 67 and followed it up with a 62 and after 36 holes, he was joint leader of the Irish Open Golf Championship. ‘Feck this for a game of soldiers,’ thought Shaper after that 62. And when Shane was taken away to the media tent to answer questions about one of the most extraordinary rounds in the history of Irish golf, Shaper went to the tent that dealt in courtesy cars.

He introduced himself and they spoke about a man he didn’t know: MR. LOWRY. “Of course, MR. LOWRY is welcome to use our courtesy car service? Would MR. LOWRY like one of the hostesses to collect him in the morning? What time would be good for MR. LOWRY?” And for a few seconds, Dave “Shaper” Reynolds tugged at his imaginary upturned collar and felt like a film star.

They travelled to the course the next morning in a chauffeur-driven Audi A8 and Shane Lowry felt like a new man. Not because of the new wheels but because of the previous day’s 62. “I had thought of myself as one of those players who would turn pro, spend a couple of years on the Challenge Tour and hopefully graduate to the European Tour after that. Then I shot 62, don’t know where it came from but it showed I wasn’t afraid to go low. I realised I was a bit better than I thought I was. I also knew that I could win the Irish Open.

“I mean it’s no good having a share of the lead at halfway and be thinking it would be great to finish in the top five.” Why would shoot for a point when the net was right there in front of you?

Brendan and the boys used to think they were clever. Wait for the sound of Coronation Street on the television and then a nod, a wink, a gentle elbow and they were all in the car headed for Esker Hills. They used to joke they’d have six holes played before they were missed. Bridgie used to think they weren’t half as clever as they thought, sometimes she was happy to be rid of them for a couple of hours.



What she liked about her two boys playing golf was that the game thought them good manners. It was the heartbreak she found hard. When Shane was 18 he played in his first men’s amateur tournament, The West of Ireland Open at Rosses Point. After 36 holes, he was leading qualifier and elated. But a playing partner, who had marked his card, put a four where there should have been a three, and a three where there should have been a four. The total was correct, the details were wrong, Shane signed for it and was disqualified.

Bridgie remembers how that broke his heart, how he cried when he came home and how it took him days to get back to himself. She walked towards the 18th hole on Sunday, Shane’s girlfriend Deirdre alongside her. “I know what you’re thinking Bridgie,” said Deirdre, “but please don’t say it.” They were both remembering what happened at the 18th a year before in the East of Ireland Championship when Shane had a chance of winning. Eight he had on the hole, a suicidal, card-wrecking eight.

On the way home, he told the women that the 18th at Baltray had never done him any favours. Now he had a four-foot putt to become the first amateur in the history of golf to win his first pro tournament. Bridgie thought about that East of Ireland but held her tongue. Shane hit his first truly bad putt of the round, the ball didn’t even wave as it went by the hole and he slumped down, his head resting on his knees, his cap pulled over his face – a human ostrich trying to get his head into the sand.

And Bridgie thought she heard her heart break. “The really hard thing,” she said, “is that you just have to stay where you are, when you want to run over to him, put your arms around him and tell him it doesn’t matter.” Three play-off holes later, Shane Lowry edged past Robert Rock to win the Irish Open Championship, in those deciding holes he hit a rescue club 230 yards, straight as an arrow, to the front of the 18th green.
Related Links

Then on the same hole 15 minutes later, he had 269 yards to the pin. He hit 3-wood to 12 feet. In the driving rain and the pressure of his national championship, the young amateur had hit two of the finest shots we had ever seen. Most of the Esker Hills crew gathered in the Carlsberg tent afterwards; one drink followed another and they got Deirdre to ring Shane, who had just finished his interviews.

“You better come down here,” she said. He came through the rain, the trophy under his right arm. They gathered in a big group and applauded his entrance. With a voice to die for, his uncle John Scanlon began to sing The Offaly Rover.

“Come close my friends and neighbours, fill your glasses to the brim

And we’ll toast our Offaly hero from the heather, hill and glen.”

Bridgie heard her brother sing and said what she always said at such moments, “People talk about the Lowrys, the Scanlons are just as talented.”

Noel Egan grew up with Shane Lowry in Clara. They were best friends from the time kids first make friends. Last week people were asking what Shane is like. He told them all the same thing. “Shane Lowry,” he says, “is the nicest fellow I’ve ever known. Always was, always will be. Has a smile for everyone, just a lovely jolly fellow.” And they ask how he’ll do on the pro tour. “To do well,” says Noel, “he only has to be Shane.”

A few days before the Irish Open, Noel was having a drink in his local, Baggots Back Door in Clara, when a friend of his called and said the Paddy Power bookmakers in Tullamore were going 3000-1 Shane to win at Baltray. Egan genuinely felt Shane could win the Irish Open and though he made only three bets in his life and never staked more than ten euro, he decided to put 50 each way on his best friend.

The difficulty was that when he put his card into the hole in the wall, the response was disappointing. His brother Gerard agreed to loan him the hundred but when Gerard got to the bookies, he rang and said he’d put 25 each way on for him. “Fifty is enough,” said Gerard. “No,” said Noel, “please put on 50 each way.” If the truth is told, Noel Egan had already calculated his winnings, 187,000 euro - enough to set him up for life.

Gerard agreed. And he had 25 each way for a friend, ten each way for another friend and ten each way for himself. On Friday evening after Shane shot 62 and was joint leader going into the weekend, Noel felt the 187 grand was in the bag. He couldn’t help thinking of what he might do with the winnings. He would pay off his ten grand loan at the Credit Union, he would change his nine-year-old car that leaks oil onto the driveway at his parents’ home, he would buy his mum something lovely and he would take Shane shopping.

Then on Monday morning, after the show was over, Noel saw it in a newspaper. A spokesman for the Paddy Power organisation said there had been a mistake, some punters had been given 3000-1 Shane Lowry to win the Irish Open when the price should have been 300-1. They had tried to contact the punters who had been given this “erroneous” price but had not got to all of them. Noel Egan and his brother’s friends hadn’t heard a thing from Paddy Power.

Their dockets said 3000-1. It was the price they had been given. Gerard, a mild-mannered man, spoke with a high-up representative of the bookies. He was told Paddy Power didn’t mind bad publicity and that if the lads took on the might of Paddy Power, they wouldn’t win and might get nothing. Then they were offered 1000-1, and had until the following morning to decide. They then got another call and were told the 1000-1 offer was available for ten minutes and then it would be withdrawn.

Ten minutes to decide, Noel Egan accepted. Even if it was 125 grand short of what he felt entitled to, 62 grand was a lot of money. But that’s not the reason Noel accepted. Rather it was out of loyalty to Shane, the truest friend he’s ever had. “I know what was done to us was wrong. With that ten minutes thing, I feel we were blackmailed. But how could I complain about getting 62 grand when Shane played unbelievable golf to win a tournament worth 500 grand and didn’t get a penny. What kind of ungrateful bastard would I have been to say 62 grand wasn’t enough?”
Related Links

From amateur winner to pro

- Shane Lowry is the only amateur golfer to win the first professional tournament he has entered

- He is the third player on the European tour to win a tournament as an amateur. Spain’s Pablo Martin won the Estoril Open in Portugal in 2007 and turned professional soon after. He has not won since

- Danny Lee then won the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia in February. The New Zealander was 18 and turned pro after The Masters in April

- Phil Mickelson was still an amateur when he won on the US tour in 1991 and has gone on to claim three majors as a professional

- Lowry turned pro on Thursday and plays in the European Open in Kent later this week

[turk]

Great article BnM Man!!

[Bord na Mona man]

Lowry and 'Shaper' go their separate fairways


Thursday July 16 2009

IRISH Open champion Shane Lowry and the caddie who helped him to glory have parted ways.

The Clara, Co Offaly, partnership came to an abrupt end yesterday after David "Shaper" Reynolds was sensationally dropped.

It's only two months since 22-year-old Shane Lowry and his caddie celebrated a historic feat at Baltray.

At his homecoming in Esker Hills, Co Offaly, Lowry took to the stage and announced that himself and "Shaper" were ready to conquer the world of golf together.

However, last night Reynolds confirmed to the Irish Independent that the pair had parted company.

Speaking from the clubhouse in Esker Hills, Reynolds refused to be drawn on the details but replied "yes" when asked if rumours of his dismissal were true.

It's understood the pair parted company yesterday after Mr Reynolds received a phone call from Lowry's management team, Horizon Sports Management.

Speculation now surrounds his successor, who is expected to be an experienced caddie previously employed on the European Tour.

Esker Hills' golfers were not surprised by the announcement last night with many saying it was an "inevitable" move by Horizon. "Everyone's behind Shane now, this is a business. Maybe his management put the pressure on him to get a seasoned caddie on his bag," said a club source.

"Both of them are arriving at venues where they've never been before. He needs a guy on his bag who has been at the venues before and who knows the ins and outs of the place. It's a huge move from amateur to pro, there's money to be made so he needs a seasoned professional."

There was also talk about the mishap during Lowry's recent outing at the French Open in Paris. When the Clara man made his first cut in four attempts as a professional, he made the mistake of setting the wrong time on the clock of his phone. He was on the practice chipping green when he got a phone call from his father, Brendan wondering why he was not on the first tee. Lowry rushed to the tee and avoided a two-stroke penalty by just 10 seconds.

There was mixed feelings in Clara last night where one man said: "It's like any of those things, it's not the Shaper's job to hit the ball," said one man.

In an interview with the Irish Independent last month when Lowry returned to Esker Hills to launch a charity golf classic, he commented on relations with the caddie. "We're trying to approach it solely that he's working for me and we're not going to spend too much time together off the golf course because I'd find that if we'd spend too much time together we'd get on each other's nerves. "

Attempts to contact Horizon Sports Management were unsuccessful last night.

- Eimear Ni Bhraonain

http://www.independent.ie/sport/golf/lo ... 24494.html

[Bord na Mona man]

It isn't a huge surprise.
The fun is over now, Shane is being managed by a sports management agency who will call the shots.

The weekly grind of the European Tour will be a big tester.
Going from one hotel to another every week and living out of a suitcase.
It probably will help if he has someone experienced in the logistics of it all helping out.

[TheManFromFerbane]

I suppose it's like the Aussie Rules thing we're discussing on another thread. When you turn professional at any sport it is just that, professional. You are going to work every day and lets face it work just isn't fun! That's why it's called work!! And when you are a professional in a business you have to make these cold clinical business decisions and to be fair I think he had to make it. I'm sure it's hard on Shaper and hard on Shane to do this but hopefully it'll work out for the best for both of them.

[Bord na Mona man]

A good omen for Clara this weekend

Stunning 63 shoots Shane Lowry up the leaderboard

OFFALY golfer Shane Lowry shot his best round since turning professional with a stunning 63 in the second round of the Madrid Masters at the Centro Nacional de Golf in the Spanish City.
The nine under par round consisted of nine birdies with five of them coming on the front nine.

On both days Shane has hit a hugely impressive 16 of 18 greens in regulation and driven onto 12 of 14 fairways. The difference today is that he was red hot with the putter taking just a total of 26 putts on the greens while he only needed one putt on 10 holes.

The Esker Hills clubman shot a one under par 71 in his first round on Thursday with four birdies and three bogies.

The score puts Shane right in the hunt at the top of the leaderboard and he could register his best tournament finish since he stunned the golfing world by winning the Irish Open as an amatuer.

[uibhfhailiabu]

Great to see Shane putting in a fantastic round like that. Hopefully he can keep it going for the weekend.

A good omen for Clara this weekend

Stunning 63 shoots Shane Lowry up the leaderboard

OFFALY golfer Shane Lowry shot his best round since turning professional with a stunning 63 in the second round of the Madrid Masters at the Centro Nacional de Golf in the Spanish City.
The nine under par round consisted of nine birdies with five of them coming on the front nine.

On both days Shane has hit a hugely impressive 16 of 18 greens in regulation and driven onto 12 of 14 fairways. The difference today is that he was red hot with the putter taking just a total of 26 putts on the greens while he only needed one putt on 10 holes.

The Esker Hills clubman shot a one under par 71 in his first round on Thursday with four birdies and three bogies.

The score puts Shane right in the hunt at the top of the leaderboard and he could register his best tournament finish since he stunned the golfing world by winning the Irish Open as an amatuer.

[Bord na Mona man]

Lowry leads the way in Abu Dhabi

Published Date: 22 January 2010
ESKER Hills golfer Shane Lowry is joint leader at the half way point of the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship in the United Arab Emirates.
The Irish Open Champion recorded a seven under par second round 65 to join Sergio Garcia and Peter Hanson at the top of the leaderboard.

It could have been even better for the Offaly golfer who missed a pair of short birdie putts early in the round.

Shane opened with a four under par 68 on Thursday which saw him lying 17th after the opening round.

Speaking after his round Shane said he came into the tournament without too many expectations after a long winter break.