Shane didn’t want to do what everyone else around him was doing.
That’s what made him special.
That, and his obsession with hitting millions of golf balls until his gloves looked like Swiss cheese and he came home with blistered hands.
In Clara, a small town in County Offaly, Ireland, all of Shane’s friends grew up with a hurley in hand.
His father Brendan had won the All-Ireland in 1982 in hurling, a sport a lot like Gaelic football—tough, physical, and deeply Irish.
By chance—or destiny—Shane set foot one day at Esker Hills Golf Club, a new course in the county. He signed up at age 11, starting at handicap 36.
The one we all get when we begin.
Shane had found a place where he didn’t need to dive on the ground, or scream, or get covered in mud, or even call anyone to join him.
No high-performance programs. No trips. No scholarships.
Shane just loved spending the whole day at his county club, hitting balls until dark.
His mother says that as a teenager, golf became his refuge from the world.
He wore out gloves while his friends went partying.
Shane studied Golf and Leisure Management at the Athlone Institute of Technology, balancing classes with training.
By 2007, Shane was already representing Ireland as an amateur, and in 2009 he won the Irish Open at Baltray.
Only the third amateur in history to win a European Tour event. That's the beauty of golf. To go as far as your game will take you, even as an amateur.
Those who know Shane Lowry well say he’s a genius around the greens.
And there he was—our small-town guy—in New York last Sunday at Bethpage Black, fighting back from behind and arriving at the 18th hole where destiny had saved him…
The role of the Hero.
Half a point. Just one putt. The difference between hell and glory.
If the ball drops.
And the ball, dropped. The TV commentator said Shane "had gone into a trance, floating in wild leaps of joy across the green".
Shane has publicly repeated...
...that the Ryder Cup was what got him out of bed in the mornings
It took everything to win last Sunday.
Big things cost dearly. And that’s why we value them more.
Happy weekend, golfers!