The Open Championship 2019 - Shane Lowry!!!

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Shaneo Lowry!!!!!!!!!!

McLaren wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:Funny given how many people said Portrush didnt have the infrastructure to hold the Open that it has broken attendance records.

https://www.theopen.com/latest/2019/07/the148thopen/record-breaking-crowd-to-attend-148th-championship

Who said that?  Seems like you have a chip on your shoulder.

People on this forum and elsewhere.

That was one impressive performance by the Irishman! Portrush should be in a regular rotation for this Championship. When I get invited to be part of the R&A it will be high on my agenda.

kwinigolfer wrote:
If he brings this home, I'd say he can play where the hell he wants. So long as he gets his 15 x PGA Tour events in.

What about Tiger Kwini? He’s only played 9 events this year. Does he have an exemption due to his winnings etc?

I'm never wrong wrote:

kwinigolfer wrote:
If he brings this home, I'd say he can play where the hell he wants. So long as he gets his 15 x PGA Tour events in.

What about Tiger Kwini? He’s only played 9 events this year. Does he have an exemption due to his winnings etc?

Players with 20 or more wins are granted a Lifetime Membership - I believe (not 100% sure though) that exempts him from other criteria and mandates.

I used to compare Shaneo with Tommy and wonder why he hadn't been as consistent as him well he has answered that this year!!!

Thanks Kwini. Thought there might be something.

It wouldn't surprise me if we don't see Tiger until next year...

Didn’t I hear he mentioned he is going to be at the Tour Championship? And playing in the Presidents Cup of course.

I'm never wrong wrote:Didn’t I hear he mentioned he is going to be at the Tour Championship?  And playing in the Presidents Cup of course.

He'll have some work to do to reach the Tour Championship - only Top 30 qualify and he's down to 27th with no start next week and highly doubtful he'll play at Greensboro. By that time he'll be out of the Top 30 and will need good results at the Northern Trust and Beemer, which he may not play either.
More likely he'll be back at the WGC in China, even more probable the Tiger benefit in the Bahamas.

The 15 event requirement is only a factor for the PGATour players that are members of other tours. Rory, IJP, Rahm etc can play as many Euro Tournaments as they want as long as they play at 15 PGATour events (which include Majors and WGCs)

Players like Spieth or Jason Kokrak can play less than 14 tournaments if they want. They would not be kicked off the tour.

It gets tricky for players like Americans like Reed and Kisner who are members off both the PGATour and European Tour. Reed and Kisner must play 15 PGATour events and they Reed and Kisner can get only 3 releases to play a Euro event against a competing PGATour event. However they get one extra release if they play 20 PGATour events and 2 extra releases if they play 25 events.

FWIW, American PGATour players who are not EuroTour members also get the same amount of releases to play International Releases

The PGATour is basically saying that Membership has its privileges, and its obligations

Shotrock wrote:That was one impressive performance by the Irishman! Portrush should be in a regular rotation for this Championship. When I get invited to be part of the R&A it will be high on my agenda.

You have my vote and I second that motion!!

Yes, highly likely that Tiger will be out of the Top 30 when he tees it up in the Northern Trust. But he really needs only one good result in the NT or BMW to make the Tour Championship. Top 5 will probably be enough. Not sure how likely that is.

Tiger is committed to play the new PGATour event in Japan, ZOZO. That event replaces the CIMB Malaysia event. I doubt if Tiger plays the HSBC event in China. His relationship with HSBC is not that good after Giles Morgan called him out a few years ago. (yes I know Giles Morgan is no longer with HSBC)

Wow what a great event that was, I made the pilgrimage up on Friday. Up at 5.30am and off we went. An 8yo, a 9yo me and my brother in law. Straight in and saw Francesco on the putting green, my 8yo was in awe. Out on the course the kids got fist bumps from Justin, Rory, Lee's birdie ball on 17, a ball from GMAC, Ricky and Andrea Pavan. The kids are now golf fans for life. What a wonderful course, absolutely fantastic. On my bucket list to play. A big congrats to all in NI & Portrush for such a successful event absolutely class.

GPB, didn’t Spieth fail to fulfill his minimum tournament requirement last year?

Shane said “This feels like an out-of-body experience”.

So the win must be huge for him..

And Bjerregaard earns a PGAT card for next season.

Great stuff B_t_b,
Great for the boys, You too!

It was great Kwini as you said memories for life. I don't know who was more excited with Lee's ball me or the two lads

Great interaction with a lot of the players fist bumps etc which the kids loved. Fans for life now.

I'd love to see a WGC back in Ireland so GPB/Robo get on to the wigs in PGA Tour HQ and make it happen will ya !!!

Great btb!

Even if he's not holding Major Championship trophies or duking it out with Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka is seldom short of opinions.

Yesterday he reckoned he hit the ball better than anyone else but putted terrible. Turns out he'd taken just three putts more than Lowry but was seven strokes behind Shane. Must be new maths.

And: In the damned by faint praise division, he was bemoaning JB's slow play:
"It was slow, but it wasn't that bad for his usual pace. I thought it was relatively quick for what he usually does."

There are better metrics for putting than #putts.

But R/A has not invested in a surveying system to get those better metrics.

It's a comment from the Tiger playbook though, isn't it:
"I hit it great, just didn't make anything".
Wouldn't be surprised if he made more length in putts on Saturday than Shane did, especially given his longish effort of #18.

Robert MacIntyre reportedly taking up an opportunity to play next week's Barracuda event in Reno - good for him; quite the summer for him.
11/2 points against Cameron Champ at the 2017 Walker Cup and happy to see him training on.

kwinigolfer wrote:Even if he's not holding Major Championship trophies or duking it out with Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka is seldom short of opinions.

Yesterday he reckoned he hit the ball better than anyone else but putted terrible. Turns out he'd taken just three putts more than Lowry but was seven strokes behind Shane. Must be new maths.

And: In the damned by faint praise division, he was bemoaning JB's slow play:
"It was slow, but it wasn't that bad for his usual pace. I thought it was relatively quick for what he usually does."

When you're shooting +16 you ain't going to be going round quickly!

Great result for Lowry.

However as a neutral I found the last day boring. Result never in doubt. Stopped watching after the 10th hole.

Well done Fat Shane. A dominant display from someone who up until this point appeared content with mediocrity. Excellent effort.

Beautiful course and hopefully the R&A will move The Open around more often and allow such venues greater exposure.

As for JB Holmes. Serves him right. He is abysmal to watch.

As for 9C. Hopefully that's him done. Nothing personal of course, but it's time we had fairer, less arse licking coverage.

Impressive debut season so far for fat Bob Macintyre too. A rising star on the European tour. Not sure if T6 gets him into The Masters or not but he's just outside the top 100 now so he might even make it on his own ranking come cut off.

super_realist wrote:Well done Fat Shane. A dominant display from someone who up until this point appeared content with mediocrity. Excellent effort.

Beautiful course and hopefully the R&A will move The Open around more often and allow such venues greater exposure.

As for JB Holmes. Serves him right. He is abysmal to watch.

As for 9C. Hopefully that's him done. Nothing personal of course, but it's time we had fairer, less arse licking coverage.

Impressive debut season so far for fat Bob Macintyre too. A rising star on the European tour. Not sure if T6 gets him into The Masters or not but he's just outside the top 100 now so he might even make it on his own ranking come cut off.

As it turned out McIntyre was a pretty impressive selection of yours in the Open Comp. Will be interesting to see how he develops from here.
Holmes - with you on that one!!
Portrush - Definitely should be a regular Open venue, the course itself as a test and the size of the crowds certainly justify it. With the number of Venues up to 10 that should kill off the obsession with going to St Andrews every 5 years but I doubt it will.
Lowry...fair play to him, a few people I spoke to said he would crumble on Sunday. I thought no way, there’s a guy who won the Irish Open as an amateur, he’s won a WGC so a Major would be the next step, he’s been in contention in a major and felt it, he knows the course well enough to be able to hold a half decent score together in those conditions so to me he had all the required ingredients to survive. The others 5 or more shots back either had to chase and run the high risk of coming unstuck (which most did) or play steady and hope the leader faltered which of course he didn’t. It wasn’t won on Saturday but it kind of was as the positions at the end of Saturday determined what happened Sunday.

Excellent display of trajectory, flight and shaping control allied to some wonderful touches on and around the greens. Superb championship winning display. It may have been a little bit processional on the way back, but that is down to how well he played.

Stunningly, outstandingly, beautifully, testingly, brilliant and varied golf course.

More please. I can't wait for the next Major. In 9 months...

Great result for Lowry; never looked in doubt after he made that putt on the first yesterday. Great ball striker, allied to an excellent short game.

Course looked a peach too; hopefully there to stay as part of the regular rota.

I heard on the waterpipes they’ve already planned to come back to Royal Portrush twice more. Apparently they must have an unofficial shortlist if upcoming venues somewhere.

Followed Bob macintyre at the Scottish open. Rickie and Rory didn't bother to speak to him once. Rory and rickie strode every fairway chatting away while Bob was left on his own. Bet mcilroy would take bobs week at Portrush over his own.

Great win from Lowry, six shot win is pretty comprehensive and a great way to do it and he barely stopped smiling over the whole tournament. Looks like he has a great bond with his caddy too.

Hard to believe that Westwood has never won a major, always seems to be in contention. You would have to expect he wont get one at this stage either. Id say Fleetwood will some day though.

I didn't notice this at the time but Fleetwood was missing during the presentation ceremony, 2nd place is apparently meant to be there.

The BBC golf podcast hypothesised he was too cut up to take part as he was very tearful post round.

Shane has withdrawn from the WGC (according to the Irish Times) good on him!

McLaren wrote:I didn't notice this at the time but Fleetwood was missing during the presentation ceremony, 2nd place is apparently meant to be there.

The BBC golf podcast hypothesised he was too cut up to take part as he was very tearful post round.

Seems a bit odd to be so cut up about it when he was never really in with a shout of winning. Lowry never really let him in and I think the nearest he got was three shots.
Not as if it was close really.

As I said yesterday Fleetwood could never have won this given what Shane shot in those conditions. If Tommy had gone after birdies he wouldn't even have finished 2nd.

Tommys chance came really early. If he had made his birdie on the first, with Shanes bogey, its down to 2 straight off, which could have changed things, especially after Shanes nervy first shot.

McLaren wrote:I didn't notice this at the time but Fleetwood was missing during the presentation ceremony, 2nd place is apparently meant to be there.

The BBC golf podcast hypothesised he was too cut up to take part as he was very tearful post round.

Noticed that too. Weirder still because he gave a composed (no sign of emotion other than disappointment at so-close-and-yet-so-far) interview with GC's Todd Lewis, I think before the presentation.


Not surprised if Lowry misses out on walking in Memphis . . . . . .

Love this:

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/shane-lowry-leads-celebrations-and-belts-out-fields-of-athenry-1.3963718

Kwini that is such an unprofessional way to prepare for a WGC. Disgraceful.

Shanes dumped Memphis. Don't blame him. Would guess he will dial in the rest of the year.

We can debate the relevance of the FedEx play offs but realistically speaking we will all be dialling it in from this point. Golf as a meaningful spectator sport is over by mid July.

Big Shane needs to be careful that he doesn't do a Willett and disappear off the face of the tournament earth.
Yes, it's important he celebrates the win but I think he needs to get back into it relatively quickly and build on it.

super_realist wrote:Big Shane needs to be careful that he doesn't do a Willett and disappear off the face of the tournament earth.
Yes, it's important he celebrates the win but I think he needs to get back into it relatively quickly and build on it.

Why? He is a made man now.

Wasnt Willett in one of the final groups yesterday anyway.

super_realist wrote:Big Shane needs to be careful that he doesn't do a Willett and disappear off the face of the tournament earth.
Yes, it's important he celebrates the win but I think he needs to get back into it relatively quickly and build on it.

He's into the first two rounds of the Play-Offs plus I think he's had a decent showing at Greensboro, plenty of time to celebrate and then get back on his horse.
Possible difference with Willett is that Lowry already had his schedule pretty much mapped out for him; it all seemed to hit Willett like a tornado, but he's playing really well again now, good to see.

Collapse2005 wrote:

super_realist wrote:Big Shane needs to be careful that he doesn't do a Willett and disappear off the face of the tournament earth.
Yes, it's important he celebrates the win but I think he needs to get back into it relatively quickly and build on it.

Why? He is a made man now.

Wasnt Willett in one of the final groups yesterday anyway.

Depends if you want to press on or settle for being a one major player.
Willett's career hit the skids right after winning the masters. He was effectively a hacker for a good two years. It's only in the last season that he's pulled himself out of that.

Yeah maybe but its a small group of players that win even one. Plenty of greats got none.

I'd imagine Shane will be in a daze for a while golfing wise but hopefully he kicks on when it is settled in and he can win more and contend in majors on a much more regular basis...I'd imagine his next big goal will be to make the Ryder Cup