MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2025

Shane Lowry

Quick Quotes

Q. How was it out there?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah good. It's soft today. We got a lot of rain yesterday. Different golf course today than I saw Sunday evening. I'm sure it will change as the week goes on. Yeah, it's Augusta, it's as good as ever.

Q. You come in here in great form, three top 10s, how are you feeling about your challenge here this week?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I'm feeling good. I'm in a good place. My game, mentally, physically, my game, everything about it I'm feeling good. I'm excited for the week. I think my biggest thing this week is I need to lower my expectations a little bit and go out and play my game and see where it leaves me at the end of the week. Yes, I've been doing very well over the last while and I put myself in contention, but it doesn't give me any given right to go and do it this week. So I think it's just back to basics and just go after it Thursday morning and see what happens.

Q. Irish golf has achieved pretty much everything else in the game, what would it mean if you or Rory could do it here this week?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I think obviously if it's not me I hope it's him. Yeah, trying not to think about it too much because obviously it would be a very special thing to happen. We're both in good form, we've both prepared very well, I know that and we both will give it our best and that's all we can do.

Q. Does it help you a little that he has the pressure of the Grand Slam and you can perhaps slide in slightly?

SHANE LOWRY: I think you still have a lot of pressure on yourself. Look I've spent a lot of time around Rory over the last few years, coming into this week, and obviously there is a lot of pressure on him, but I think he's at a stage now where he's certainly able to handle it. Look, he's won everything there is to win in golf. I wouldn't be surprised if he was to give it a run this week. I think there's a couple of players that if you finish ahead of them this week you'll have a chance and he's one of them.

Q. Try to describe what this place means to you?

SHANE LOWRY: I think every time you get the invite you feel kind of blessed to have the invite back here. I love coming back here. From my -- when my year starts in January you sort of, this is always in the back of your mind. You always have the second week in April in the back of your mind. I think even sitting at home last week, the build-up to it, I love it. I love thinking about it, I love the flight up here on Sunday and just coming here and getting out here Sunday afternoon. It's just such a special place. It's hard to describe what it's like and what it means to golfers, but yeah, to come here and compete is one thing, to come here and try and to win one would be just something that it would be a dream come true.

Q. Some players shrink when it comes to major championships and some are able to raise their game and you're the latter. What is the trick to being able to do that?

SHANE LOWRY: I don't know. I try not to think about it too much, I try to just be myself. I come to tournaments like this and I probably get up for them especially now like sort of later on in my career I get up for them easier than I do for a lot of other tournaments. I think it's easier to get out and practice and get up early and go and do your work when you've got the Masters on the horizon and you want to go and compete here. Yeah, but all the majors, I just love them. I just love them, I love the competition, I love the carrot dangling there that what could be at the end of the week. I think that is, that's the thing that keeps me going and keeps me getting up in the morning.

Q. 20th anniversary of Tiger's chip from the back of 16. How old were you and do you remember watching it?

SHANE LOWRY: I was 18, it was my I was in the middle of my exams back home -- can't imagine I was studying anyway (laughing). But I'm sure I was out on the golf course the following day trying to do the same thing. That's what I used to do, that's how I grew up is to watch Tiger Woods in the evening times at home on the weekend, and go out and try to do what he did the following day. So obviously very memorable.

Q. The par-5s present opportunities, but are tricky. Has your strategy on them evolved and are they a key?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think there's quite a few -- there's a few key holes out here, obviously the tough par-4s and the par-5s. If you play No. 1, No. 5, 11, and 12, if you play those holes well and play the four par-5s well, you're going to have a chance to win the Masters. That's how I feel about the golf course. Yeah, you do kind of, as the years go on, you do figure out where to leave it at certain pins. But there's still a lot of unknown out there. Like, it's golf, so you don't know where your ball's going to end up off the tee. So the strategy is obviously there, but you have to take what you get on any given day. Yeah, I think I've managed to play those holes better over the years and still getting better and I'm still learning out here, but yeah, they are key.

Q. When you talk about lowering expectations is there a trick or is it just something you do from experience?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, there's no trick to it. There's just, it's just I think talking about it is a big thing. Obviously I'll sit and I'll talk to Neil and I'll meet with Bob this week and just talk about what I'm feeling. There's obviously going to be a sense of anxiousness going in because it's such a big tournament. Like I said earlier, there's a carrot dangling what could be at the end of the week is always there and hanging over your head. I think you just have to bring it back to what matters and what it's all about, and that is just the first tee shot on Thursday. After that you go from there and walk down the hill and see where it leaves you. That's all you can do, just try your hardest.

Q. You're No. 12 in the world, which is the best you've been. How much has the relationship with your self and Rory -- obviously you go back a long way -- but that friendship seems to have lasted and blossomed the last few years. How much does it rub off just being around Rory as much as you are around him?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, look, I've always said being Irish and coming out on Tour when I did I was very fortunate to have the players I did when I come out. Even back to like the Gary Murphys Peter Lawries, to show me the way in Europe, and then when I get out here to have Padraig, G-Mac, and now Rory kind of to just, they're like, in our world, they're like golfing idols, and to have those people there that you can kind of bounce stuff off and see what they do I think is very helpful to someone like me. Yeah, look, been friends with Rory is great. We obviously have a lot in common. We're from the same place and we live in the same place now. Our families are very close, our wives are very close. So just to be around him and see how hard he works I think it does rub off on me, and it has done so over the last few years. Yeah, it's been cool to see what he's done in the game and to try and chase some of that too.

Q. How noticeable were the unfortunate loss of the trees due to the hurricane?

SHANE LOWRY: I actually don't think it changes the golf course, but it just visually changes some holes. I think obviously the trees, the tall trees is what they have lost and you can see some stuff that you were never able to see, but I don't think it changes the golf course one bit.

Q. Your 10th Masters here. Does it feel like, do you ever feel like you served your apprenticeship here are you always picking up something new?

SHANE LOWRY: No, I don't think it's, obviously I think this course you need a lot of experience, but there is guys that of come here and done well. Look at Ludvig last year, first Masters, chance to win. That happens as well. So just because you've been here -- Langer is playing his 41st that doesn't mean he's going to win this year. So I think, yeah, I feel like I've been around here long enough to know what to expect and that's one of the key things out here is kind of you kind of have to expect the unexpected at times. You hit some great shots out here that don't get rewarded. You very rarely hit bad shots that get lucky, so it's like your game needs to be very good this week to do very well.

Q. Do you have a plan?

SHANE LOWRY: I have a plan. I played I was here last Monday and Tuesday, I played two rounds. Played nine holes Sunday evening. Nine today, and nine tomorrow. I'll sit down over the next few days and have good chats with Neil, he's in the house with me, we talk about what needs to be done. And yeah, you can have all the best plans in the world but you need to execute as well.

Q. You have to be willing to put your neck on the line especially in these big events. Rory spoke about it, are you willing to have your heart broken. You have to stick your neck out. How do you feel about the challenge that that is?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, you do and it's easy, you come here and you finish 20th or 15th and you feel like you've had a good week. But when you do, if you're lucky enough to put yourself in that position there's no point shying away from it. Like I spent many a Sunday going around here, or I've spent -- and this is what I'm trying to think about this week -- I spent plenty of Masters tournaments coming in here not in form, not playing well, and this is the year where I feel like I'm playing okay, and there's no point shying away from that. I need to go out there and just sort of take the bull by the horns and be myself and see where it leaves me on Sunday.

Q. You have probably the most enviable collection of competitive aces of anybody in the world. 12th hole here, Calamity at Royal Portrush --

SHANE LOWRY: I'll take four pars here on the 12th this week. I don't need any hole-in-ones. (Laughing).

Q. Do you have a dream to fill out that foursome?

SHANE LOWRY: I think the 12th here would be -- like I've been very lucky. I always said I've been very fortunate to achieve what I have in golf. The Irish Open or The Open in Portrush, Ryder Cups, those hole-in-ones on iconic holes, I've been very lucky. So, yeah.

Q. (Question about a win for Ireland.)

SHANE LOWRY: It would be huge. It really would be. I think it would be would be of the biggest things that he's ever happened in sport in our country. So, try not to think about stuff like that (laughing). I'm mentally strong enough now it will be gone by Thursday morning.

Q. Your results got better, after the first few years your results got progressively better. You know you can actually do it.

SHANE LOWRY: Look, I've never felt like I've had my, even that year 2022, 2023 the following year I played great, and then last year I wasn't great. I never felt like I fully holed my fair share of putts around here. I feel if I can do that I can do something.