THE 153RD OPEN

July 19, 2025

Shane Lowry

Mixed Zone

Q. First and foremost, how are you feeling after it's been a funny 24 hours? I believe there's a virus in the house as well.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, not great. No, not great. I haven't eaten today yet. I tried to get a protein drink down me after eight holes, and I felt like throwing up all over the place. Yeah, it's been a tough day, but I'm not going to make excuses. I played poorly today and obviously had a bad finish.

I felt like I ground it out really well to get to 1-under for the day through 13. Then a bad shot on 14 and a little bit of a bad break as well.

Q. Just the feeling you had last night going home after the two-shot penalty kind of took away the chance of maybe a 65 today could push you into contention, what was that like?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to take. You get home late and have to dust yourself off. Wake up at 2:30 with cramps in my stomach. I know we have it in the house. Ivy had a couple of days ago. Wendy had it yesterday. Me and Iris have it today. It will be gone by the holidays next week. So at least that's a plus.

Q. You had such expectations for this week. What do you feel like right now, I guess? Because Portrush has been so good to you.

SHANE LOWRY: To be honest, I'm good. Yeah, I wanted to do well so badly today and this week. I put so much into this week that, yeah, it's hard to take.

Q. Finally for me, when you stood on that 1st tee, you had almost put through your mind what that first tee shot would be like on Thursday. It's a lot, isn't it, of expectation that's gone into this week?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I felt like I dealt with it well, though, and felt like I did really well. You could say I scored pretty badly. Par-5s were poor over the first couple of days, and I feel like I really could have been there, thereabouts.

You know, it's golf. It doesn't always go your way, but you just need to kind of keep plugging away and I'll go out there tomorrow -- the annoying thing for me today is I didn't get to enjoy today as much as I would have liked. Saturday at The Open in your home country, I should enjoy it a lot more than I did, just because of how I felt.

I'll try to get out -- hopefully I get out tomorrow morning and try and enjoy it as best I can, try to shoot the best score I can, and then have a couple weeks off before the playoffs. For me, my big mindset for the next few months is about the Ryder Cup and trying to win that. That's where all my work is going to go towards over the next while.

Q. On the 9th, I saw you sitting on the fairway for 10, 12 minutes. How are you feeling at that stage in?

SHANE LOWRY: Honestly, every bathroom I went in and tried to throw up, I couldn't. It's just such a bad feeling. I think lack of energy towards the end maybe did me in. Look, I don't want to make excuses. It is what it is. It's just really bad timing obviously.

Q. It is a fair excuse when you're coming out this morning and just hoping that something magical might happen.

SHANE LOWRY: Honestly, I was hoping to shoot 1-under. Honestly I was hoping to shoot 1-under par, and I got there today on 13. 14 was playing hard today. I knew, if I could make par there, I could shoot maybe 2-under, 3-under. Then disaster on 14. Yeah, it is what it is.

Q. Fully facing looking at the way the weather is today and the way is course set up, did it look like a day to go to 64?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, there's a score out there. Tough pins, but there's a score. You can see there's a few good scores. You see Rory is off to a hot start. This golf course isn't playing easier than it is today. Firm fairways, the greens are receptive, yeah.

Q. If it's a tournament other than The Open, are you playing today?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I'm not not playing. I'm definitely playing.

Q. If you can speak to the reaction of other players after they announced last night. It did seem there was no fairness about the way it was delivered.

SHANE LOWRY: I'm not too keen to talk on it too much. I think we said enough about it last night. Quite supportive, I would say, from the other players. They all feel bad for me that two shots is a lot to give up. Yeah, I don't really have much else to say actually.

Q. Do you remember in 2016 at Oakmont you called a two-shot penalty on yourself for a ball moving on the green?

SHANE LOWRY: Oakmont? No, I don't -- I have called penalties on myself. By the way, I -- no, I'm not going to say any more.