Shane Lowry would 'happily' take on Americans in Ryder Cup alongside Bob MacIntyre

Shane Lowry congratulates Great Britain & Ireland team-mate Bob Macintyre during the inaugural Hero Cup at Abu Dhabi Golf Club in January. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

MacIntyre has moved into one of the six automatic spots on offer in the 12-man side after finishing second behind Rory McIlroy in the Genesis Scottish Open on Sunday.

The team will be announced on 4 September and Lowry, who made his debut in the 2021 match at Whistling Straits, is hoping it includes both him and MacIntyre.

“Scoring 64 was as good as you could do on Sunday,” said the 2019 Open champion of MacIntyre’s closing effort in wind gusting up to 35mph at The Renaissance Club. “Anything under par was good, so to shoot six-under on the day was unreal. I saw his second shot at the last hole (a 3-wood from 212 yards to set up a closing birdie) and it was a joke.

“It’s great for Scottish golf. They have a player rising up the world rankings (he’s jumped 50 spots to 54th). Bob was up there a couple of years ago inside the top 50 in the world and he’s fallen out of it a little bit.

“He had a good chance to win in Denmark before the Scottish Open and then to put in that performance was really, really good, especially when you are talking from a Ryder Cup standpoint.”

Lowry and MacIntyre were team-mates in the inaugural Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi earlier in the year, when Donald used the event to give potential Ryder Cup contenders a taste of a professional team environment.

“Bob reminds me a lot of myself when I was younger. Just how gritty and determined of a character that he is,” added Lowry. “The country Scottish upbringing, similar upbringing that I would have had in Ireland. He’s just a good lad to be around. If he makes the team and I make the team along with him, he’d be a good person to have in the team room.”

MacIntyre joined forces with another Irishman, Seamus Power, in the Hero Cup, but Lowry said he’d be happy to have MacIntyre at his side when Donald’s troops bid to claim back the trophy after a heavy defeat in the last Ryder Cup.

“I always say I’m happy to play alongside anybody. As I said, first and foremost, I hope I’m on the team and Bob will hope the same,” he said. “If we get there and Luke matches us up, or Dodo [assistant captain Edoardo Molinari] matches us up pretty well statistics wise, I’m sure we’ll happily go out and take on the Americans together.”