AMGEN IRISH OPEN

September 9, 2026

Shane Lowry

Trump International Golf Links & Hotel

Press Conference

JAY AGGARWAL: Shane, you famously won The Irish Open in 2009 as an amateur. What memories do you have?

SHANE LOWRY: It's that long ago, I can't remember. Yeah, obviously The Irish Open is one of the tournaments at the start of the year that you kind of circle in your calendar. I've played -- I think this is my 18th one. I think I've played every one since 2009. It's great could come home. It's great to come to some great golf courses around Ireland. It's great to compete at home and try and go out there and win your National Open.

If you had asked me when I was a kid growing up, would I even compete in double-digit Irish Opens, I'd probably have taken your hand off.

It's nice even today, feeling the love out. There's not many kids, in school in Clare today, but I'm looking forward to the week.

Q. How familiar are you with Doonbeg?

SHANE LOWRY: I came here a few weeks ago for the first time. I played 18 holes a few weeks ago, and then I played nine on Monday and 18 today. It's a great course, great test. I think it's going to be a very tough test this week. We are going to get strong winds.

When you turn around, I played the front nine downwind and when you turn around it's going to be a proper test coming in. It's pretty spectacular when you're out there. Some of those holes along the water are pretty cool.

Q. What is your head space like? Are you sort of refreshed now coming back to play this side of the Atlantic?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I haven't played much. I probably wasn't in the best place after The Open. Then I went to play Memphis, kind of going through the motions there. Had a nice few weeks at home in Florida. Bit of routine. I worked really hard and done some good stuff. I'm feeling refreshed for the rest of of the season. I'm feeling good. I'm pretty happy. I'm looking forward to hopefully -- you know, this week and next week, two huge weeks on the calendar. I think if you can't really get excited or up for those, it's time to look in the mirror, you know.

Q. I know it was your dad out there, like a mountain goat, you had involvement with what you had to go through with one of your sponsors --

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I mean, everyone I think that travels and has been to golf tournaments, sees my dad all the time, especially the big tournaments. It is great to have him out there. It's great, the stuff over the last sort of 10 or 12 years, he's had a couple of knee replacement, hip replacement and Stryker have been there all the way for him. It's a great partnership for us now. It kind of works out well and I'm very happy to have been involved in that with him.

Q. Adare is only a few miles up the road and a lot of Ryder Cup points on offer over the next couple of weeks. Be nice to hit the ground running over the next few weeks and give yourself a good head start.

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think a lot of -- it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that a lot of my goals over the next 12 months are going to be revolving around one thing and that's going to be part of a winning Ryder Cup Team at Adare.

When it got a announced as Adare Monday, the Ryder Cup, in '27, it's something that I looked at and it would be very, very special to play a Ryder Cup at home. I know a home one is in Europe but an Irish home Ryder Cup would be very special. I was at the one at The K Club on the Friday, and yeah, gives me goosebumps even just thinking about it.

So a lot of the reason why can I get out of bed over the next 12 months will be working towards that. I'm looking forward to the challenge of trying to make the team and then trying to win.

I think the Americans are going to come strong next year. I think they are going to be coming at us trying to, we've been pretty good the last couple of years. I think they have got some something to come for next year, and I think I'd love to be part of the team that tries to fend them off.

Q. Did you see the Walker Cup?

SHANE LOWRY: It was incredible, wasn't it. I almost went down. I kind of wanted to go. I thought it might be better watching on TV at home. I just thought, you know, the way it all panned out for Lahinch, for everyone for sure, beating the No. 12 days in a row and for the last hour of play, I didn't think it looked like they were ever going to win and bang, all of the sudden they won two holes or three holes and before you knew it, they were won.

I think it was great for the tournament, great for the Walker Cup and I'm delighted for them.

Q. I know you've had some frustrating moments this year and Pádraig was talking about how your golf game is in a much better place than the results are showing. What's it been like trying to work through that and get the slices of luck that you need?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, it's interesting because I feel like when things are going your way, you come off the golf course and you go, got a lot out of that round or I finished sixth when I feel like maybe I could have finished 12th.

But when things are not going your way, you feel like you come off the golf course and you shoot the worst score you can every day. I feel like that's been happening a lot a little over the last few months.

I'm not a stats guy, really, that much, but I really have to, if I look at my stats over the last year, it's not been that bad. It's been close. I went out in two majors this year, kind of, you know, if things don't -- if I have a great day, I've got a chance, which is not necessarily a bad thing on Sundays.

Yeah, it's been an nearly -- there's been a lot of "nearly" golf in there. But I think I'm mature enough and been around long enough to know that three or four months of bad golf -- or average results, is not going to make or break your career. You need to ride the wave and fight your way through it and that's what I feel like I'm doing.

Q. When you're in that nearly phase, are you trying to rip up the script?

SHANE LOWRY: Not really. You're trying to be -- yeah, you're trying to be better at everything, really. You're just trying to, I fully believe what I do is the right thing for me, the way I go about my business, the way I practice, the way I work on my game, and I don't think I need to take too much of a deviation from what I've been doing.

I think there's just been certain moments this year where it's just not gone my way where I have probably not been my best mentally or something like that, that I feel like, you know, a bounce here or there it could be different, but ifs and buts in golf, that's all the way it is. I'm not too disheartened by the whole thing. I feel like there's still time to rescue a decent year.

Like, look, I left Memphis a few weeks ago, right and I wasn't in the BMW. And everyone in the BMW is going home sulking, and I went home and I wasn't too discouraged from the whole thing. I felt like I was getting three weeks off and getting a chance to get to refresh myself and come to The Irish Open and Wentworth and refresh and energize and hopefully give them a good go.

I feel like the last few years, I come into this part of the season or the latter part of the season kind of going through the motions because I feel like I'm overgolfed, whereas I don't feel like that this year. Who knows. The one thing I do know is that I get up every day and work at it. You go out and give it your best. There will be times where I will feel under pressure. There will be times when I give myself chances to win tournaments. Just get through that and gave over the line.

Q. Tom gave an interesting answer about coming back to a links course as an Irish player, saying look, it's once, twice a year. Is there an advantage to an Irish player this week given your upbringing on these shores?

SHANE LOWRY: Certainly not a disadvantage. You know, clearly we don't play a lot of links golf, as all, throughout the year.

But I do think there is an art to playing links golf and there's like a -- I was doing an outing in Lahinch yesterday and hitting a 5-iron from 130 yards, it's hard to get your head around that. There's people that might struggle to do that, and that does take -- yeah, there's kind of an art to that. It's not just you can't just teach anyone that.

But I think professional golf at the top level like you have here at Doonbeg here this week, everyone is pretty good and everyone will figure it out.

Yeah there will be guys that will struggle in the conditions this week, but most guys will be all right. But you know, it's certainly not a disadvantage.

Q. Pádraig said the version he's seeing of you at the moment is probably the best version of you he's ever seen probably.

SHANE LOWRY: I'm delighted you were having Pádraig about me, not about himself.

Q. Oh, there was a bit about him. And he just spoke about patience. Are you a patient guy? Do you find this difficult to be patient and wait for your things to turn your way?

SHANE LOWRY: I think being a professional golfer forces you to, you have to be patient but like we want everything -- you do want everything now. But you know, golf's an interesting career because you lose a lot more than you win. You know, there's way more bad days than there is good days. But it's how you frame it yourself.

I feel like there's been a few times this year where it's been really, really tough but I feel like throughout a lot of it, I've been very positive and I've been very upbeat about where my game is at.

You know, I really don't feel like I'm playing bad golf at all. I feel like I'm playing decent golf this year. I feel like I'm hitting the ball good. My iron play is probably not as sharp as the last few years but it's not far away and I feel like I've putted better than I have the last couple years. It's certainly not far away.

We try and live our life -- well, I try and live my golfing life like the glass has to be half-full, you know what I mean, and you have to look at the positives and be as positive as you can and you have to come into each week and work your way into it and prepare as best you can and give it your best when you're out there.

I feel like I am the best version of myself that I've been throughout my career. I feel like I'm hitting the ball as well as I've done in forever. I feel like over the last four or five seasons, I've been very consistent with how I've hit the ball and I don't think that's really changed that much this year. There's just been a couple of errors that happened earlier in the season that have been tough to take, and you know, but that's professional sport.