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IMAGINE IF you had a winning lotto ticket in your hand, only for it to blow away in the wind. Would you laugh, or cry? On a magical Sunday in Baltray just over a year ago, Shane Lowry – despite seeing runner-up Robert Rock’s name scribbled onto the winning cheque for half a million euro – laughed and cried, only the tears were of sheer joy at the enormity of what he, as an amateur, had achieved in winning the 3 Irish Open.

Now, here he is, in Killarney for the defence of the title. A year older, but with a maturity that seems beyond that time, Lowry has grown into a marketable commodity, and developed into a fine player. Ranked 82nd in the world and with winnings of €512,434 on the European Tour after he decided to join the professional ranks on the back of that life-changing Irish Open victory, the Offaly man takes another step into new territory here: he defends a tour title for the first time.