Lowry’s major gripe about questions on winning another Open

Pesky journalists, eh? Shane Lowry becomes Open champion after being asked time and time again over the years when he would finally win a major and now we want to know if he’s capable of repeating the feat.

Shane Lowry speaks ahead of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images

“Golf is funny,” he said, smiling, after that exact question was posed in his pre-event press conference for this week’s BMW PGA Championship – the Irishman’s first European Tour appearance since that Claret Jug victory at Royal Portrush. “You don’t win one and people ask you when you’re going to win one. You win one, they ask you when you’re going to win your next one!”

He was asked the question after saying himself that he’d been struck by some of the names that weren’t on the Claret Jug and now trying to join an even more select group as a multiple major winner.

“Well, I just won The Open,” he added. “I don’t think I need to do anything differently. I just need to be myself. I’m going to enjoy this one. Thankfully we don’t have another major for a while, but I think the only thing that could come close to doing what I did in Portrush would be, you know, green jacket. So that’s obviously the next major. But I’ve always said, and I still believe, even though I’ve won one now, I’m not the type of golfer or the person that tries to peak for certain weeks. So I don’t see myself trying to peak for majors.

“I just see myself picking out my schedule and going out and trying to compete in as many tournaments as I can and try to win as many tournaments as I can. If it somehow happens 
to be the week of a major, all well and good and I’ll take it from there.”

Lowry, who has been awarded honorary membership of the European Tour in recognition of his major status, heads into the Wentworth event at the top of the European Tour’s money list but is just 400 points ahead of Austria’s Bernd Wiesberger.

“The first time I was announced as Champion Golfer of the Year was pretty cool. It’s a lovely title to have,” he said of having played a couple of events on the PGA Tour since Portrush. “But, to be honest, it has sunk in and I’m quite eager to get on with my golf and I’m looking forward to trying to achieve different goals I have the rest of the year.

“The Race to Dubai is the obvious one. I’m No 1 and I want to stay there, but I’m going to have to play some good golf and I’m going to have to maybe win again. But I’m just going to go out day after day and try to shoot as good a score as I can and see where it leaves me. First and foremost I want to win the Race to Dubai at the end of the year.”