AMGEN IRISH OPEN

September 3, 2025

Shane Lowry

The K Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Hello everybody. Welcome back. I'm delighted to be joined by Shane Lowry at the Amgen Irish Open. You started this week with a captain's pick and you've got the Irish Open to look forward to. How much are you looking forward to the next few days?

SHANE LOWRY: Obviously exciting few weeks ahead, starting with this week. I think, as a golfer, as an Irish golfer, as a European golfer, I think, if I can't get myself motivated and ready and up for what's to come over the next month, starting with Thursday here, I should pack it in.

Yeah, I'm very excited. It's good to be back here at a place I know pretty well. I get to stay in my own bed for a few days, which is nice. Yeah, things have been going pretty well. The week has been going very nice so far.

Q. And this morning you were joined by a special little boy out on the course. I wonder if you could tell us a bit about that and Make-A-Wish as well.

SHANE LOWRY: Darragh -- obviously Make-A-Wish is a great organization and do a lot for kids. Darragh has recovered from leukemia and he's out the other side, and he loves his golf. He told me his favourite player is Rory McIlroy, which is -- oh, well, he's probably mine as well (laughter).

Yeah, Make-A-Wish is a great thing. We obviously are involved with them, and the Irish Open is involved with them every year, and what they do here is pretty cool. The Tour did some great video, so it was nice to be involved with that.

Q. When did you hear from Luke that you were on the team?

SHANE LOWRY: Probably fully on Sunday. Over the last while, he's kept me in the loop a little bit because I was obviously in the team and out of the team and in the team. Yeah, I only fully knew last week on Sunday. It was like an anxious kind of few weeks for me.

I felt like I didn't have a great playoffs. I played better as the time went on. I felt like I played really, really good at the TOUR Championship, which I thought really helped me, but I also knew what I could add to the team.

So I was semi-confident about getting the pick, but to actually receive the call and know fully -- you can't expect anything in this game. I was obviously unfortunate enough to miss out by as small a margin as I did over the course of a whole season or even more than that. It just goes to show you no matter what you're doing throughout the year, whether you're 50th or 40th on a Sunday, when you go out and play in the tournament and you don't even want to be there, every shot counts.

Obviously I'm very happy. Looking forward to it. It's going to be a really tough task for us, but I feel like we are ready for that.

Q. You had a very strong season, two runners-up without actually getting the win. Looking at the Irish Open and the Wentworth as your two tournaments before the Ryder Cup, it's obviously not very ideal, is it?

SHANE LOWRY: I think it actually -- so I think it works well for us Europeans, I think, because we get to come to the environment that we're essentially playing for. I feel like, when you go play the Ryder Cup, you're playing for much more than just the 12 lads there or the caddies or the people that are there, I feel like you're playing for the Tour. You're playing for a lot of other people on the outside.

So I feel like to put ourselves in that environment over the next two weeks, it kind of shows what it would mean to everyone. You're getting well wishes off everybody. It's not even just the Europeans on Tour, it's the other guys, the Kiwis or the South Africans. I think everyone has a want for the European Ryder Cup team to win this Ryder Cup, and I think putting ourselves in that environment -- yes, this week particularly is quite busy for me.

But once I get to Wentworth next week, it will be fine. I'll be less busy. I'll be able to do my own thing and prepare as well as I can for that tournament. I still think -- I think it's good preparation for me, but I don't know about other people, what they would think. I quite enjoy being around the environment of the European Tour and especially with what we've got coming up.

Q. Where would you rate the Ryder Cup against majors? Rory was talking about it was way at the top. Where is it for you?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, if we win the Ryder Cup in a few weeks, I don't really care what's gone on the rest of the season. It's a big thing for me. Obviously you go through the whole year and you're trying to win and trying to play well and you've got lots of goals, but a big, big goal for me was win the Ryder Cup this year at Bethpage, and it hasn't changed.

I think, if we're sitting there in the team room on a Sunday, nobody will care what's gone on over the last eight months, so, yeah, it's way up there with me. As I get older, it's getting even more and more important. I just love to do it.

Q. With the Ryder Cup coming up, is your mind going to be elsewhere?

SHANE LOWRY: No, I think you always even -- we prepare for big tournaments all the time, and you always have like bigger goals ahead. But I think, once you get back to like the small task at hand and the small goals that you have -- not small. I'm not saying the Irish Open is small. I would love to win the Irish Open. I've been lucky enough to win one, and to win it as a pro as well would be amazing.

I think like the big goal over the next month is to win the Ryder Cup. I think you bring it back to your day today as a sportsman, and that's what you do. Even like this afternoon, what do I do to recover as well as I can? Obviously I've got tomorrow in mind and the rest of the week, but I've also got the Ryder Cup in mind and the bigger goals in mind.

Yeah, you just look at that, but you take it day by day. That's how we live our lives.

Q. Is there anything you'll practice or anything you'll change prior to the Ryder Cup? Anything about match play, you'll think about more going in? And I've been asking all the Irish guys, if you could only play one course for the rest of your life, what would it be?

SHANE LOWRY: No, I don't change anything in how I go about the lead-up to the Ryder Cup. I never really change my equipment too much or my bag for tournaments. I just go with what I have. I feel like what's got me there is good enough.

Obviously I'll be trying to tweak and practice what you feel like you could do better and what you might need to do better the week of it, but I'm not going to change anything.

If I could play one course in Ireland for the rest of my life -- that's such a hard question. We have so many great golf courses. Obviously I'm biased to Portrush. Even after The Open this year, I thought Portrush was unbelievable. I played Portmarnock yesterday in the nicest weather you could play it in. Probably Portmarnock, to be honest.

Q. (Luke said he wants the Ryder Cup team to stay in the states.)

SHANE LOWRY: I think he wants people to stay in the same time zone. We live in that time zone anyway. I'm not sure if I'm going to go home to Florida for a couple days and see my kids or stay in New York and practice there. I think he means people staying on the same time zone, which will obviously help the week of the Ryder Cup.

Yeah, I think we have a couple of days there, and then I haven't fully planned my time as to what I'm going to do yet.

Q. Is there like a central location for you?

SHANE LOWRY: No. I know there's a couple of people that are staying nearby, but I don't think it's a whole team thing.

Q. It seemed like different players, speaking to Rory earlier, more accomplished players on the team. What's your view as well going out there? Can you talk a bit about Bethpage? You played extremely well in the PGA the last time. It's a tough course.

SHANE LOWRY: I think you're right. I think, if you look at Bob McIntyre and look at how accomplished he is on the PGA Tour now and how well he's doing this year and the last couple years, compared to just having made the team last time. People like that are also very accomplished now.

I feel like we have the same team as last time, and I feel like everybody's become a better player. So I think we have a better chance. It's going to be hard. It's not as easy as just copy and paste from what we did in Rome because there's a lot different challenges, and the golf course plays differently. The golf course in Rome was set up perfectly for us, and not only in the way it was set up with the rough and the way the greens were, but just how the course played for foursomes and four-ball settled pretty well for our pairings. So I don't know if they're planning on changing that.

But yeah, I feel like our team is very, very accomplished. A lot of the guys are playing well. I'm very excited for Bethpage. I played really well the last few rounds there the last time, but I think it's going to be a different golf course for the Ryder Cup. It's probably not going to be playing as physical. It will just be interesting to see.

That's what the practice trip is going to be great for the team to see how they set up the golf course. It will be good for us to play it twice that week.

Q. You'll be holding Rory back in the car park this year?

SHANE LOWRY: I don't know, it depends what it is (laughter).

Q. Are you expecting the pairings to reflect a more hostile environment?

SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I think -- like if you talk to any -- like even if, I suppose, you talk to any sports person who plays home and away fixtures, like let's say a home and away fixture in football. If you're a Liverpool player playing at Old Trafford or if you're a Man U player playing at Anfield -- well, if you're a Man U player playing at Anfield, you're probably going to get beaten. I'm not a Man U fan, but I am. You're going to have to prepare yourself differently.

We had 50,000 people cheering for us in Rome, and now we'll have 50,000 people cheering against us. So it's going to be different. But we're going to be very well prepared. There's only myself, Rory, and Tyrrell here this week, and Luke was playing. But next week we're all going to be together.

Luke will get the ball rolling how we're actually going to actually prepare for that next week. I'm sure he'll be putting some things in place over the next while, and we'll be very well prepared.

Q. What do you make of Rory's performance in Happy Gilmore?

SHANE LOWRY: My daughter watched that the other day and said Rory's such a bad actor.

(Laughter).