SEASON REVIEW:Through the driving rain of May there was a moment of barely-believable magic at Baltray for one Offaly man, recalls PHILIP REID
“A ROVER I have been, and a rover I will stay but to that faithful county I will return some day . . . Come close my friends and neighbours, fill your glasses to the brim As we toast our Offaly heroes from the heather, hill and glen.”
– The Offaly Rover
IN ONE magical, barely- believable few days in May, Shane Lowry changed his life. The acronym, B-I-F-F-O, had a new meaning. Brilliant- Incredible-Fellow-From-Offaly. In truth, no matter what words were used in attempting to describe a tale that was stranger than fiction, none could fully do justice to what unfolded in the 3 Irish Open at Baltray where the 22-year-old golfer, still an amateur, performed heroically.
When we stopped pinching ourselves, the fact remained: Shane Lowry was the Irish Open champion! His name could be etched alongside those of Seve Ballesteros and Nick Faldo and Jose Maria Olazabal and Colin Montgomerie . . . and Pádraig Harrington.
And, in all the years of this great championship, going back to the time when the first winner George Duncan stuffed newspapers under his clothing to combat the weather in claiming the first title in 1927, no story was as fanciful or magical as that of Lowry’s against-all-odds victory.
Every one of us in Baltray on that Sunday afternoon, as Lowry fended off and then beat England’s Robert Rock at the third extra hole of a sudden-death play-off, struggled to catch breath. Such moments come along so rarely on the European Tour, whose tentacles stretch across the globe, and amidst the sand hills and gnarly fescue rough of Co Louth Golf Club, even the rain that fell from the grey skies couldn’t spoil the party.
And, boy, what a party; even the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen – a fellow-Offalyman – could, for a time, forget the economic gloom and doom.
Rory McIlroy, who had raced from the clubhouse to be behind the 18th green at the moment of Lowry's winning putt, insisted on buying the champagne. And, as the strands of The Offaly Roverreverberated from one tent to another, the golfer's proud dad, Brendan, who had won an All-Ireland football with Offaly in 1982, confessed, "I'm not taking away from the All-Ireland medal . . . but this beats that."
No, Lowry's win was straight out of the film Tin Cup,only more unbelievable. The difference was, this was for real. Lowry, playing in his very first European Tour event and only doing so on an invite extended to the Golfing Union of Ireland, defeated all-comers and, even if he couldn't accept the €500,00 winner's cheque (which provided some consolation for Rock), Lowry's win captured the hearts and minds of a nation and beyond and ensured that his life and his destiny had changed forever.
Lowry was different that week. While the professionals used courtesy cars, Lowry, for the first couple of days, drove his own Mitsubishi Colt from the house he had rented with his caddie, Dave “Shaper” Reynolds, in Castlebellingham to the grassy car-park beside the tennis courts at Baltray. After shooting a stunning 62 in Friday’s second round, however, Lowry moved into contention, started using the courtesy cars and continued to live the dream.
"It's like a dream, really. It's an unbelievable feeling to be leading by two shots over a field like this," Lowry had remarked after his second round, the story of stories on a remarkable day which had also seen Graeme McDowell shoot a course record, Paul Lawrie win a topless Audi for a hole-in-one, first-round leader Francesco Molinari get disqualified and Pádraig Harrington head off to watch Angels and Demonsbelieving he would be around for the weekend only to miss the cut by one shot.
Of his calm demeanour, Lowry commented: “A lot of people said to me during the week, ‘just go out and play like it’s the East of Ireland and play the course’. I can’t wait (for the weekend). ”
On the night before the final round, Lowry confessed to experiencing a sleepless night as he sought to comprehend the enormity of what would face him. He could only manage one slice of toast in his rented house but, by the time he got to the golf course and met up with his coach, Neil Manchip, he started to settle.
“We had a cup of tea and a bit of breakfast and by the time I got to the first tee, I wasn’t that nervous.”
It was to prove to be a long day, with many twists and turns before Lowry finally saw off the dogged challenge of Rock, a player seeking his first win on tour but destined to finish runner-up for a second straight week.
A final round 71 for 271, 17-under-par, left Lowry locked together with Rock at the top the leaderboard at the end of the regulation 72-holes and, so it was that the 559 yards (509 metres) 18th hole became the scene for one of golf’s most dramatic conclusions.
At one point in the play-off, Lowry, showing an ability to remain calm under pressure, even quipped to his caddie, “Would he ever just miss? He already has the half-million.” Of course, Lowry knew that he would have to do things the hard way. And he held no fear of that.
Ultimately, it came down to his own ability to see the challenge through. Three times during the play-off, the players walked down the 18th fairway.
In that time, they found rough and sand traps and even pathways between them. They had birdie and eagle putts. In the end, however, a tap-in par proved to be sufficient for Lowry to claim the prize that down the years eluded so many of Ireland’s great players.
