BRIONY CARLYON: We welcome our champion of the 2026 Amgen Irish Open, Shane Lowry.
I don't think I think I have any questions because the Irish media want to talk to you. Let's go straight to the floor.
Q. Can you just tell us what happened at that boot camp that you had in Florida last week, what was addressed and what were the honest truths that came out of it?
SHANE LOWRY: I wouldn't say there was honest truth but to be honest I've only played one tournament since The Open, and that was in Memphis, and even there, I wouldn't say my heart was in it. You know, the PGA TOUR season this year has been quite difficult and I just couldn't wait it get behind me.
And I remember saying when I was coming home from Memphis, I remember saying to -- I sat there on the Monday afterwards. I wasn't one bit disappointed I wasn't going to St. Louis for the BMW. And I organised -- I got on to Neil and I got on to Robbie and I said, right, let's get out here. Robbie come out for a week. Neil came out for five days. Let's go back and put in a good performance the rest of of the season in Europe.
And yeah, so we just -- the boys came out. Did my thing. But I felt like I got like a good 'ole mental reset, as well.
And yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Like that -- obviously it all clicked this week. But I felt mentally I was in an amazing place this week, as well. I felt like I went out and went after it. I felt like I played somewhat carefree-golf, when I wasn't worried about making mistakes. I wasn't worried about the outcome of anything.
And yeah, but those couple of weeks' work have definitely paid off.
Q. You've gone to the top of the Ryder Cup rankings. You've pretty much booked your place back into the Masters. It's amazing what can happen in one week. Have you ever felt as comfortable on the golf course as you have this week?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, like the Masters is a big thing for me. Even I dropped outside the Top-50 in the world, I know I had to be there by Christmas. But I knew I had a couple of big tournaments coming up and if I played well, I could get back there. So it's nice to pretty much have cemented that. I don't know where I move in the world, but I'm sure I move up a few spots.
What was the question?
Q. About being so comfortable on the golf course.
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, I'm sure it looked like I was comfortable today but like inside you, there's all sorts going on. Like this morning was pretty difficult. I didn't sleep amazingly well last night. Like I didn't get back till late. And I didn't sleep really well last night. I got up. I did the usual thing. We went to the same place we were having coffee every day. We went down there, had a coffee and came back. God ready, came to the course. Lunch didn't go down amazingly well.
And I knew, you know, there was obviously going to be a lot on the first tee. It was going to be quite difficult. That tee shot is not easy. So I just -- all day, I was like, I cannot wait to hit the first tee shot and get that done and once I got that down, I hit an unbelievable tee shot, one of the best ones I hit all week. And once I got that away, I was off and running. I knew that would be the case, as long as I hit a decent tee shot, you know.
And then I went up and rolled the putt in, and yeah, I felt pretty comfortable for most of the day. But you know, it gets to the stage where you're like, geez, this would be an awful disaster if I lost from here (laughing).
Myself and Dermot did a great job today. We were staying focused on playing one shot at a time, one hole at a time and trying to shoot the best score we could. I didn't know where I stood. I knew I was a good bit ahead.
But I said to him after I holed that putt on 15, because I hadn't seen the scoreboard in a few holes, and I said, "How many are we ahead?"
He said, "Plenty." So when he said that, I knew we were pretty about from there, yeah.
Q. Speaking of Dermot, you made a hard decision midseason to change caddie. What's it like to have Dermot back on the bag?
SHANE LOWRY: It's been great. Obviously, look, Darren -- I've been have lucky. All my caddies have been great; great people to be around, and they have been great servants to me. Dermot did pretty much the first ten years of my career with me.
And I always remember, like Bo was amazing and to win The Open at Portrush with Bob, and I always remember that wasn't long after we finished and I always remember feeling bad for Dermo about that he didn't get to do that. I said to him walking up 18, I couldn't be happier walking up the 18th fairway today with anyone other than him.
Darren has been great the last few years. We had some great times. Bethpage last year was incredible. He's a great caddie and great person, as well. I'm going to get to catch up with him at Wentworth, as well. He lives near there. So that will be good.
But it's unbelievable to have Dermo back. He's been so positive and such a breath of fresh air for me when I needed it most. You know, I needed -- I think I needed a change. I think, you know, it was nice to have a bit of familiarity, as well, and not have to goat a different caddie to teach or to learn what you need and what you want.
So yeah, but that was unreal. It was great to have him out there today.
Q. Just a bit more on dealing with Aberdeen today. The tees were in front during the first tee, the crowds were like ants all over the hills and getting everywhere. We saw you get a little bit upset on 18 and you were doing some marshalling today. Talk about how --
SHANE LOWRY: 18, yesterday, it's funny, right, because marshals obviously have a very tough job and they are volunteers, but they get a little bit in the way at times, I feel like. And 18 was just two guys going across the fairway as I'm trying to hit the shot and it's playing really hard. There's another guy walking -- but any ways, you have to do a little bit yourself. But it was carnage out there.
I did get a little bit -- the 18 tee shot for me, I practiced on Monday. I hit a tee shot 50 yards left out-of-bounds and for the rest of the week, that's all I could think about on that tee. It was quite an anxious tee box for me. And even today, I had a 10-shot lead, and I was like, I just can't wait to get this tee shot over and done with.
But yeah, it was like -- it was mad. You know, it was something me and Dermo, we were laughing about it. We'll look back on this in years to come and be like absolutely mental stuff. The President of the United States on first tee and the crowds, and it was an amazing day. The sun was out. Like I was holing putts. The crowds are going bananas.
Jacob, I'm sure it was a tough environment for him to play golf in but he's young and he'll learn from that hopefully. He's a proper player. I was very impressed with him yesterday. It was all a bit mad.
Q. Was that pretty identical to Baltray and Portrush and Bethpage? Are they all kind of a similar vein?
SHANE LOWRY: It is hard to put them all into -- in order. I'm very lucky I've done some of those things, yeah.
Q. You mentioned on the TV interview you were fighting demons at some point earlier in the year. Can you talk to us about maybe how difficult that was after those earlier misses in Dubai and at the Cognizant, and when you are in a difficult space like that, what do you fall back on and rely on to get back to the stage you're on now?
SHANE LOWRY: So like Dubai was difficult. Cognizant was pretty hard. But I would go back to the Sunday of the Masters was especially difficult for me this year, and I feel like after that, a lot of wind went out of my sails. I feel like I was playing great golf, and even after that, I felt like I was playing decent and finishing 25th, 30th, 40th, just doing nothing every week and it was very, very tough.
And in that stretch, I played like 11 out of 13 weeks or something. So it was quite hard.
And then the more you kind of keep trying to play through it, the harder it can get sometimes. So to take a few weeks off and kind of reset was nice.
What do you do? You kind of trust -- first of all, I went ask looked at my stats. They were pretty good. Not bad. Not amazing but not horrendous. So that kind of gives you a glimmer of hope.
So, right, I need to keep trying to put myself in position, and that's probably the only way I'm going to get through it. Put yourself in tough positions and try and fight through it. Believe in what you're doing with your team. Believe in what you're doing with the people around you. I feel like I've done that.
And today was a big day for me. If I didn't win today, I don't even want to think what I would have been like for the next while. It would have been hard.
Q. But despite that mindset of you had something to lose, in a way, as you describe it, you said you felt mentally in a really good place and you felt very comfortable. How do you get yourself into that position? Because there was all kinds of pressures and bedlam out there.
SHANE LOWRY: I said to myself today, I have to go out and win this. Like I have to go out and -- I have no other choice. It's pretty much -- honestly a lot of similarities in 2019. I felt like I went out there with no choice but to win the golf tournament, and I went out there and grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and I did that, so that was pretty good.
Q. Can I just ask you, when you putt like you did this week, is it technical thing or do you just show up on Thursday and hole the putts and ride the wave? Is it a feeling? How do you attribute the nine one-putts and all the ones today?
SHANE LOWRY: I don't know, I haven't -- I did switch my putter this week. People mightn't have noticed. It's a different shaft in it. That might have helped. The neck is different on my putter this week. It's face balanced instead of toe open, or whatever they call that. So it worked. First week out, it worked.
Q. You said that you didn't spend too much time looking at quite how far you were ahead. When did you finally sort of release and say, I have this won?
SHANE LOWRY: I said to Dermo after I holed that putt on 15, I said, "How far are we ahead?" And he said just plenty -- or enough or something like that, he said. So I knew I was a long way ahead.
In my head, I was like, what does he mean, 6? 8? And then I missed a green right on 16 and I was walking back to hit my chip shot and had a look at the scoreboard and saw I was 10 ahead. I was like, okay, so nothing stupid here now. And then I nearly holed that. It was easier going back to hit that chip knowing you're ten ahead.
But at that stage -- it's funny, at that stage, I was, right, this is over. But I'm also a professional and I wanted to finish well. I wanted to hit good shots and I wanted to finish off.
I said to Neil this morning, and you know, maybe I got caught up a couple of times this year of not playing to the final whistle, I suppose when things happen.
I need to Neil this morning, when I'm five ahead or five fine, I'm playing to the 18th and see where we are after that. So I did that today.
Q. When you got off the green at 18, you were embraced with a roar -- when you've had difficulties like this year, can you talk the importance of people you have around you like him?
SHANE LOWRY: Yeah, Neil, he's Scottish but his wife's Mayo. He's a big Mayo man. And Brian, he's a Mayo man, too. So listen to them has been hard.
And I asked him how many matches they were at this year. They were only at one, and half the other Mayo crowd, as well. But anyways, we'll say nothing about that.
Yeah, look, having good people around you is everything. I think I've been very fortunate with the people I have around me. You know, Neil has been there since day one. He's probably, you know, I've had a few lessons here and there when I was a young lad.
But other than that, funny, the only coach I've ever had, he's not only my coach, he's my person. Like he's the person I talk to about everything. He probably knows more about me than I do myself.
He's very important. He kind of just keeps me -- he just keeps me going. He keeps me believing. Like he always says to me, you're still going to do great things. He believes I'm going to win more majors. He believes I'm going to do more great things in the game. If people keep saying that to you, you know, it kind of does -- it does rub off on you. It's good to have good people around you.
Q. The Mayo boys had a "Keep Swinging" -- Rory's mantra, in the dressing room at Croke Park this year. With so much madness around the tournament this week, as well, what was your way of dealing with all of it?
SHANE LOWRY: Honestly I went out -- I feel like I went out to win this week. It was like, I wasn't like -- I went out and went after it. I went after it differently than what I've done before, and it worked.
Like, look, sometimes you try stuff and it doesn't work. But I said to myself, I'm going to go out and I'm going to go after it this week. I'm going to after this golf course and I'm going to go after this tournament and I did that. It's worked out unbelievably well, so thank you.
Q. Well done. You've had worse weeks. Now that you've fought off the demons this week and the Van Helsing on you, the wind is back in your sails. So where are you setting sail for now? Where are you setting course for?
SHANE LOWRY: I don't know what my schedule is going to look like now. What do you mean?
Q. Future?
SHANE LOWRY: Future? Well, I'm 40-year. And that's been -- it's not in the back of my mind, but you think, geez, I've been around a long time. Driving in here Thursday morning, my 18th Irish Open, like been around a long time.
But a performance like that, system got a lot of good golf in me and still got a lot to give. Look, it goes without saying, the next 12 months, the Masters, the PGA, the U.S. Open, The Open, and then the Ryder Cup, and that's what the season is going to kind of revolve around.
I'd love to be a part of a winning team at Adare, and I think a lot of my work and my -- a lot of the reason why I get up in the morning over the next 12 months will be to be part of a winning team there. This has been a good start this week. Obviously I got some good points this week.
But yeah, I still feel like I've got a lot to give. And this year has been hard but you know, you have to go through the tough times. And they kept on saying the last few weeks, they kept on saying, this is just a minor speed bump in the career. It's nothing really. And if you look at it and break it down, actually there's a couple of bad things happened but you know, it's not been unbelievably bad. I've not been missing loads of cuts. I've not been shooting really high scores. I've just not been myself.
And I was back to myself this week, and it was really enjoyable.
Q. Pádraig said this week this is the best version of you that he's seen. Do you feel that your best stuff on the evidence of today might be still ahead of you?
SHANE LOWRY: I think you have to believe that. I think if you don't believe that, you're on the way out. So I think you have to believe. I'm a glass-half-full -- I was sitting here Wednesday saying I'm a glass-half-full, and I have to be, and you have to be in sport and you have to be in everything that you do, so yeah.
Q. It's the first time since '98 that an Offaly jersey has been in led into County Clare --
SHANE LOWRY: Saw it out on the fairway today.
Q. Given you've mentioned demons and stuff, what's the next chapter for Shane Lowry after maybe getting through those demons this week?
SHANE LOWRY: Look, I'm going to enjoy this. I'm going to sit back, take it all in. It's been -- I keep saying it's been a difficult year. It's not been a difficult year -- honestly life off the course couldn't be better. It's amazing. But I've had a few bad weeks off the course and it's pretty tough at times.
But in golf, you lose a lot more than you win. I said that in here on Wednesday, as well. So it can be a tough -- a tough career, and so when you do something special like I did today, I'm going to soak it all in.
I've obviously got a huge tournament next week in London. So celebrations might have to wait a few days.
Q. You've an exemption to Adare / Ryder Cup to train and practice --
SHANE LOWRY: I'm going tonight. Maybe the captain might let me have one.
Q. The President said outside that he specifically changed his plans for today because of you. Can you give your side of the story on the stuff going on last night and the pressure that must have put on you?
SHANE LOWRY: He also said he's taking the tariffs off Irish whiskey, when Irish distillers better be sending me a cheque soon (laughter). Must be worth a few quid to them. Yeah, there was a big dinner last night and I was there, and we had a talk. But he didn't tell me that he was changing his plans for me. Who knows, yeah.
BRIONY CARLYON: Thank you. Congratulations. Our Amgen Irish Open Champion, Shane Lowry.
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