Paul Lawrie happy that Open winner Shane Lowry is having a party

Paul Lawrie has been in Shane Lowry’s shoes and says the Irishman is quite right to be letting the world know exactly what winning an Open Championship on home soil means to him.

“He’s having a bigger party than I had, to be fair,” observed Lawrie of video clips of Lowry’s celebrations after his win at Royal Portrush on Sunday appearing on social media over the past few days.

Reflecting on his own Claret Jug win at Carnoustie in 1999, the Aberdonian added: “I didn’t drink back then an awful lot. I was only a sort of three or four beers a year man. I was kind of a different person back then.

“But if I won The Open now, we would have a party like he’s having. He looks as though he’s enjoying it, and quite right.

“To go out there, especially after Rory [McIlroy] missing the cut, he’s the one they all want to win, he’s got all the expectation on his shoulders the whole weekend, and you can’t underestimate how hard that is to pull that off and to play the way he did.

“His 63 on Saturday was just sublime, but I thought his Sunday play was every bit as good as Saturday, shooting one over in some atrocious weather with the tournament on the line.”

Lowry’s victory, which came after the three previous majors this season had fallen to Americans, followed his success in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in 2015 while he also won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, a Rolex Series event, earlier this year.

“Certain players are big-time players and players who when they win tournaments they win big and then you don’t see them for a wee while. Shane seems to be one of those players as this was a massive win for him,” added Lawrie as he prepared for his debut in the Senior Open Championship at Royal Lytham, where he has been paired with American duo Shaun Micheel and Jeff Sluman for the first 36 holes.

“He’s a great lad. He’s very popular. Bo [Martin, Lowry’s caddie] is the same. Bo loves a laugh, loves a pint or two, and that’s what it’s about. You can see how they’re sharing it with everyone this week with the videos that are coming out, and that’s what you want. You want someone winning the Open that’s someone who can share it with everyone else.

“Any time you get a European winning majors, that’s what you want. He’s the kind of player, with the short game that he’s got, that when it gets like that, that you want him to pull through and you want him to keep going and get on the Ryder Cup team. Padraig [Harrington] is obviously very friendly with him. I think he’ll want him on his team, there’s no question about that. I know Darren [Clarke] wanted him on his team in ’16, but it didn’t quite happen for Shane. He didn’t play the golf that he could have played to get in it. But he’ll be desperate to get in Padraig’s team.”