Shane Lowry | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Born | Clara, County Offaly, Ireland [1] | 2 April 1987
Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
Weight | 225 lb (102 kg; 16.1 st) |
Sporting nationality | Ireland |
Residence | Dublin, Ireland Jupiter, Florida, U.S. |
Spouse | Wendy Honner (m. 2016) |
Children | 2 |
Career | |
College | Athlone Institute of Technology |
Turned professional | 2009 |
Current tour(s) | European Tour PGA Tour |
Professional wins | 7 |
Highest ranking | 16 (2 February 2020) [2] (as of 10 November 2024) |
Number of wins by tour | |
PGA Tour | 3 |
European Tour | 6 |
Best results in major championships (wins: 1) | |
Masters Tournament | T3: 2022 |
PGA Championship | T4: 2021 |
U.S. Open | T2: 2016 |
The Open Championship | Won: 2019 |
Shane Lowry (born 2 April 1987) is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and the PGA Tour. His notable achievements include winning the 2019 Open Championship, the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009, and the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Born in the Midlands Regional Hospital, Mullingar, County Westmeath, [1] Republic of Ireland, Lowry grew up in Clara, County Offaly. He is the son of Brendan Lowry, who won the 1982 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final with Offaly. [3] Shane Lowry maintained his links with Offaly as his golfing career advanced, saying in 2021: "But any time I get the chance to go to O'Connor Park and watch Offaly play, I do and I am the first to give out if they lose and I am sitting in the stand." [4]
Lowry learned his early golf at Esker Hills Golf Club, where he began his amateur career. [5] He attended Athlone Institute of Technology as a scholarship student on the Higher Certificate in Sport and Recreation.
Lowry was the 2007 Irish Amateur Close Champion, defeating Niall Turner 4 and 3 in the final. [6]
Lowry was part of the Irish teams, combined from the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, winning the European Amateur Team Championship in 2007 and 2008, on the first occasion in the same team as Rory McIlroy. [7] [8]
While still an amateur in May 2009, he won the Irish Open at County Louth Golf Club on the European Tour, defeating Robert Rock on the third hole of a sudden death playoff. The win, on his tour debut, made him just the third amateur to win on the European Tour, [9] following Danny Lee earlier in the 2009 season, and Pablo Martín in 2007. Lowry shot a 62 to equal the lowest ever by an amateur on the circuit and led from the second round onwards. [10]
With this win, he entered the Official World Golf Ranking as an amateur at No. 168 [11] and reached a career high of sixth in the World Amateur Golf Ranking. [12] Walker Cup captain Colin Dagleish described the win as "fairytale stuff", adding: "You'd have to say that Shane's victory was the biggest (of the three amateur wins). To win your own national Open is quite something. It was unbelievable, it really was." [10] The win was only the second home victory since 1982 and the first since Pádraig Harrington in 2007. [10] Harrington himself was also full of praise: "It's fabulous for Irish golf. You only have to look at the fact it is such a rarity for an amateur to win, such a rarity for an Irish player to win the Irish Open. So, on a lot of fronts, it is a big deal. It was very impressive." [13]
Lowry elected to turn professional the week after his Irish Open triumph, meaning that he would miss out on the opportunity to play in the Walker Cup in September 2009. [14] He made his professional début on 28 May at the European Open, where he shot 78 in the first round to end the opening day almost at the back of the field, and went on to miss the cut following a second round 73. [15]
Lowry missed the first three cuts of his professional career, but had his first payday on 5 July, when he finished 50th at the Open de France Alstom. [16] He had his best professional result in 2009 in November, when he finished 3rd in the Dunlop Phoenix Tournament in Japan. [17] In January 2010, Lowry finished in fourth place in the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, [18] moving him into the top-100 of the Official World Golf Ranking. [19]
In June 2010, Lowry qualified for his first major championship, the Open Championship at St Andrews. During the qualification, Lowry equalled Nick Faldo's course record at Sunningdale when he posted a 62. Lowry went on to make the cut at St Andrews and eventually finished in a tie for 37th place.
Lowry won for the first time as a professional in 2012, at the Portugal Masters in October. He shot a 67 to tie for the lead with the Englishman Ross Fisher, who made bogey on the final hole after missing a four-foot putt. The victory lifted Lowry back into the Official World Golf Ranking top 100 and made him eligible to compete in the WGC-HSBC Champions.[ citation needed ]
In 2014, Lowry was runner-up at the BMW PGA Championship in May and later tied for ninth at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool (Hoylake), his best finish at a major. [20]
In August 2015, Lowry won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in the United States at Firestone in Akron, Ohio, two strokes ahead of runner-up Bubba Watson. [21] [22] Lowry accepted PGA Tour membership for the 2015–16 season.
At the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, Lowry shot 65 (−5) in the third round for 203 (−7) and a four-stroke advantage over Dustin Johnson and Andrew Landry at the 54-hole stage. The 65 was Lowry's joint career best round at a major championship. Due to weather delays on Thursday, the third round was not completed until early on Sunday, and Lowry birdied two of his remaining four holes to extend his two stroke overnight lead to four. In the final round he was in contention for the title, within one shot of Dustin Johnson after 12 holes, before three consecutive bogeys on holes 14, 15 and 16 ended his chances. He finished the tournament tied for second place, with a final round score of 76.
Lowry did not win on the European Tour from 2016 to 2018 but was joint runner-up in the 2017 DP World Tour Championship, Dubai and runner-up in the 2018 Andalucía Valderrama Masters.
Lowry started the 2018–19 season with partial status after finishing 140th in the FedEx Cup.
In January 2019, Lowry won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship by one shot over Richard Sterne. He led by 3 strokes after three rounds but was two-over-par after 11 holes of his final round and dropped 4 shots behind Sterne. However he finished with 3 birdies in the final 7 holes, while Sterne had two bogeys, giving Lowry the victory. [23]
In July, He moved into a share of the 36-hole lead at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush, after successive opening rounds of 67. He was tied at eight under with J. B. Holmes. Lowry then shot a 63 for a new course record to lead by four strokes at the end of the third round. [24] He won the tournament by six shots ahead of Tommy Fleetwood. [25] [26] [27] Lowry held the Claret Jug for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic postponing the 2020 edition of the Open Championship.
In September 2021, Lowry played on the European team in the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin. The U.S. team won 19–9 and Lowry went 1–2–0 including a loss in his Sunday singles match against Patrick Cantlay.
In February 2022, Lowry finished runner-up at The Honda Classic. Sepp Straka birdied the final hole to finish one shot ahead of him. [28] In April, Lowry held the lead during the final round of the RBC Heritage, however a double-bogey on the back nine, saw him finish one shot short of the playoff between Patrick Cantlay and Jordan Spieth. [29] In September, Lowry won the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club. He shot a final-round 65 after the event had been shortened to 54 holes. He beat Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm (who shot a 62 in the final round) by one stroke for his sixth European Tour victory. [30]
In September 2023, Lowry played on the European team in the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Guidonia, Rome, Italy. The European team won 16.5–11.5 and Lowry went 1–1–1 including a half in his Sunday singles match against Jordan Spieth.
In the third round of the 2024 PGA Championship, Lowry shot a record-tying 62, only the fifth in men's major history. [31]
Lowry married Wendy Honner in 2016 and has two daughters. [32] He is Catholic. [33]
During tournaments he often wears black and white clothes, which are the same colours as his hometown's Gaelic sports club. [34]
Lowry announced a five-year partnership with Offaly GAA in April 2021. [35] [36]
Lowry is a lifelong supporter of Manchester United. [37]
Legend |
---|
Major championships (1) |
World Golf Championships (1) |
Other PGA Tour (1) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | To par | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 9 Aug 2015 | WGC-Bridgestone Invitational | 70-66-67-66=269 | −11 | 2 strokes | Bubba Watson |
2 | 21 Jul 2019 | The Open Championship | 67-67-63-72=269 | −15 | 6 strokes | Tommy Fleetwood |
3 | 28 Apr 2024 | Zurich Classic of New Orleans (with Rory McIlroy) | 61-70-64-68=263 | −25 | Playoff | Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer |
PGA Tour playoff record (1–0)
No. | Year | Tournament | Opponents | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2024 | Zurich Classic of New Orleans (with Rory McIlroy) | Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer | Won with par on first extra hole |
Legend |
---|
Major championships (1) |
World Golf Championships (1) |
Rolex Series (2) |
Other European Tour (2) |
No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | To par | Margin of victory | Runner(s)-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 17 May 2009 | 3 Irish Open (as an amateur) | 67-62-71-71=271 | −17 | Playoff | Robert Rock |
2 | 14 Oct 2012 | Portugal Masters | 67-70-67-66=270 | −14 | 1 stroke | Ross Fisher |
3 | 9 Aug 2015 | WGC-Bridgestone Invitational | 70-66-67-66=269 | −11 | 2 strokes | Bubba Watson |
4 | 19 Jan 2019 | Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship | 62-70-67-71=270 | −18 | 1 stroke | Richard Sterne |
5 | 21 Jul 2019 | The Open Championship | 67-67-63-72=269 | −15 | 6 strokes | Tommy Fleetwood |
6 | 11 Sep 2022 | BMW PGA Championship | 66-68-65=199* | −17 | 1 stroke | Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm |
*Note: The 2022 BMW PGA Championship was shortened to 54 holes due to Operation London Bridge.
European Tour playoff record (1–0)
No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 2009 | 3 Irish Open (as an amateur) | Robert Rock | Won with par on third extra hole |
Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 | The Open Championship | 4 shot lead | −15 (67-67-63-72=269) | 6 strokes | Tommy Fleetwood |
Results not in chronological order in 2020.
Tournament | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | CUT | T39 | CUT | ||||||
U.S. Open | CUT | CUT | T9 | T2 | T46 | CUT | |||
The Open Championship | T37 | T32 | T9 | CUT | CUT | CUT | CUT | ||
PGA Championship | CUT | T57 | T46 | CUT | CUT | T48 | T12 |
Tournament | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | CUT | T25 | T21 | T3 | T16 | T43 |
PGA Championship | T8 | T66 | T4 | T23 | T12 | T6 |
U.S. Open | T28 | T43 | T65 | CUT | T20 | T19 |
The Open Championship | 1 | NT | T12 | T21 | CUT | 6 |
CUT = missed the half way cut
"T" = tied
NT = no tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
Tournament | Wins | 2nd | 3rd | Top-5 | Top-10 | Top-25 | Events | Cuts made |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Masters Tournament | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 6 |
PGA Championship | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 13 | 10 |
U.S. Open | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 8 |
The Open Championship | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 7 |
Totals | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 19 | 46 | 31 |
Tournament | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Players Championship | CUT | T16 | CUT | T46 | CUT | C | 8 | T13 | T35 | T19 |
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Cancelled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Year | Championship | 54 holes | Winning score | Margin | Runner-up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2015 | WGC-Bridgestone Invitational | 2 shot deficit | −11 (70-66-67-66=269) | 2 strokes | Bubba Watson |
Results not in chronological order before 2015.
Tournament | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Championship | T17 | T35 | T62 | T29 | T48 | ||||||||||
Match Play | R16 | T34 | T51 | T51 | T24 | NT1 | T42 | T35 | T31 | ||||||
Invitational | 77 | T48 | 1 | T36 | T6 | T23 | |||||||||
Champions | T28 | 32 | 34 | T68 | T23 | T43 | NT1 | NT1 | NT1 |
1Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
NT = No tournament
"T" = Tied
Note that the Championship and Invitational were discontinued from 2022. The Champions was discontinued from 2023.
Amateur
Professional
Sergio García Fernández is a Spanish professional golfer. He turned professional in 1999 and played on the European Tour and PGA Tour prior to joining LIV Golf in 2022. García has won 36 international tournaments as a professional, most notably the 2008 Players Championship and the 2017 Masters Tournament. García was also the Chairman of Spanish football team CF Borriol.
Pádraig Peter Harrington is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour, PGA Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. He has won three major championships: The Open Championship in 2007 and 2008 and the PGA Championship, also in 2008. He spent over 300 weeks in the top-10 of the world rankings, and reached a career-high ranking of the third spot in July 2008. Harrington was a member of six consecutive Ryder Cup teams between 1999 and 2010. In 2024, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Justin Peter Rose, is an English professional golfer. Rose first achieved significant media attention when he finished fourth place at the 1998 Open Championship as an amateur. He turned pro the next day but struggled during his first few years as a professional, making few cuts. In the early 2000s, however, he had success, winning his first European Tour title in 2002 and ultimately leading the tour's Order of Merit in 2007. In the ensuing years, Rose focused primarily on the United States, winning a number of notable tournaments, culminating with a victory at the 2013 U.S. Open. Rose has continued with success since then, earning a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics, finishing runner-up at the 2017 Masters, and reaching number one in the world for the first time in 2018.
Paul Alexander Casey is an English golfer who is a member of LIV Golf. He has also played on the US-based PGA Tour and the European Tour. In 2009, he achieved his highest position, third, in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Graeme McDowellMBE is a professional golfer from Northern Ireland. He has a total of eleven tournament victories on the European Tour, and four on the PGA Tour, including one major championship, the 2010 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. In 2022, he joined LIV Golf. McDowell has also represented Ireland at the World Cup and he has been a member of the European Ryder Cup team on four occasions. He has appeared in the top-10 in the Official World Golf Ranking, with a highest ranking position of 4th.
Rory Daniel McIlroy is a Northern Irish professional golfer who is a member of both the European Tour and the PGA Tour. He is former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, and has spent over a hundred weeks in that position during his career. He is the only person to win the FedEx Cup three times, surpassing Tiger Woods' two. He is a four-time major champion, winning the 2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship, 2014 Open Championship, and 2014 PGA Championship. Along with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, he is one of three players to win four majors by age 25.
Sven Strüver is a German professional golfer.
Francesco Molinari is an Italian professional golfer. He won the 2018 Open Championship, his first and only major victory, and the first major won by an Italian professional golfer. The Open Championship win capped a successful season in which he won the 2018 BMW PGA Championship, his fifth win on the European Tour, and the Quicken Loans National, his first PGA Tour win. At the end of the season, Molinari won 5 out of 5 points as Europe won the 2018 Ryder Cup.
Lodewicus Theodorus "Louis" Oosthuizen is a South African professional golfer who won the 2010 Open Championship. He has finished runner-up in all four major championships: the 2012 Masters Tournament, the 2015 and 2021 U.S. Open, the 2015 Open Championship, and the PGA Championship in 2017 and 2021. His highest placing on the Official World Golf Ranking is fourth, which he reached in January 2013.
Rick Yutaka Fowler is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He was the number one ranked amateur golfer in the world for 36 weeks in 2007 and 2008. On January 24, 2016, he reached a career high fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking following his victory in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship. He is one of only 4 golfers to shoot 62 in a major championship, achieving the feat at the 2023 U.S. Open, played at the Los Angeles Country Club.
Martin Kaymer is a German professional golfer who currently plays on the LIV Golf League. A winner of two major championships, he was also the No. 1 ranked golfer in the Official World Golf Ranking for eight weeks in 2011.
Brian Eric Harman is an American professional golfer from Savannah, Georgia. He plays on the PGA Tour, on which he has won three tournaments, including a major championship victory at the 2023 Open Championship. He also finished as a runner-up at the 2017 U.S. Open. He plays left-handed.
Bernd Klaus Wiesberger is an Austrian professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and formerly on the LIV Golf League. He finished the 2019 European Tour season in third place on the Race to Dubai standings, his best finish to date.
Thomas Paul Fleetwood is an English professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour and European Tour. He has won seven times on the European Tour. He won the silver medal for Great Britain, at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.
Marcus Mikael Kinhult is a Swedish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour. He won the 2019 Betfred British Masters.
Séamus Edmond Power is an Irish professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. His notable achievements include winning the 2021 Barbasol Championship and the 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship.
Jon Rahm Rodríguez is a Spanish professional golfer from the Basque Country. He was number one in the World Amateur Golf Ranking for a then record 60 weeks and later became world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, first achieving that rank after winning the Memorial Tournament in July 2020. In June 2021, Rahm became the first Spanish golfer to win the U.S. Open. In 2023, he won the Masters Tournament, his second major championship. On 7 December 2023, Rahm announced that he was joining LIV Golf. In 2024, he was ranked the world's second highest-paid athlete by Forbes.
The 2019 Open Championship was the 148th Open Championship, played 18–21 July at Royal Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was the second Open Championship at Portrush, which last hosted in 1951, won by Max Faulkner. Royal Portrush saw major alterations in preparation for the tournament, including replacing two of the holes.
Robert Duncan MacIntyre is a Scottish professional golfer who plays on the European Tour and PGA Tour.
Josef "Sepp" Straka is an Austrian professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour, where he has won twice.