22-year-old amateur golfer hit the big time at the Irish Open and so did the pal who backed him at 3,000-1
Shane Lowry
David Walsh
The idea for the photograph was simple. To get Shane Lowry, his dad Brendan and his uncles Sean and Michael, together at Esker Hills golf club; to then put a gaelic football in the young mans hands and golf clubs in the hands of his dad and uncles. The older men had played together on the Offaly team that won the most exciting All Ireland football final of all time and just three days before, young Shane had won the most sensational victory in the history of the Irish Open Golf Championship.
They went to a small patch of elevated ground overlooking the sixth green. As they took their places, Shane let the gaelic football slip from his grasp and the ball bounced into high grass three feet beneath where they stood. It should have stayed there but as Shane moved to retrieve it, the ball trickled out of the grass and down onto a road below.
Father, son and uncles were now watching with wonder because the ball somehow crossed the road, got through a second corridor of high grass and rolled further down towards the huge bunker guarding the left side of the sixth green. They thought it wasnt moving fast enough to get to the trap but it did and then, remarkably, it kept going. Gaining speed off the downslope of the trap, it spilled out onto the green.
Esker Hills sixth green is a brutal two-tiered putting surface that slopes from back to front and on an average day breaks 40 hearts. On this afternoon the flagstaff was positioned front right. Having scaled two banks of high grass, a road, a sand trap, the football made a 70-yard journey to get to the green and then rolled across the upper tier before taking the left to right break and beginning a trek down towards the hole.
As it did, they all willed it to hit the pin. Go on, go on, they shouted, and this white gaelic football, on terrain that was totally alien, moved like a guided missile and hit the flagstick right in the middle. By now it had travelled about a 100 yards on what was perhaps the most magical adventure ever undertaken by a football.
You know what, said the photographer to young Shane, you should go out and buy yourself a lottery ticket. The thing was; Shane had done that the previous week. And his numbers had come up.
Six days before, Shane Lowry put his bag of Titleist golf clubs into the back of his Mitsubishi Colt van, picked up his friend and caddie Dave Shaper Reynolds and left their home town of Clara in County Offaly, pointed the Colt east and headed off for Castlebellingham in County Louth. Lowry, a 22-year-old amateur golfer, had been invited to play in the Irish Open Golf Championship at Baltray and though he travelled more in hope than confidence, there was no denying the excitement.
If youd asked him on that Monday afternoon what he was looking forward to, he would have first mentioned the practice round he was going to play with Rory McIlroy on the following day. McIlroy and he were once part of the same Irish team and it would be good to see him again. But there was more to this golfing life than glamour. Lowry had rented a house in Castlebellingham for the week because being a bit far from the course, it was less expensive.
They called him Shaper from his gaelic football days with Offaly. He was a useful forward on the team that won the Leinster Championship in 1997 and the name came from the way Reynolds looked on and off the pitch. Had he been a racehorse, the prize for best turned out would have been his, for keeps. Before taking a free, he would tug on his upturned collar, pull them up a little more. Cantona without the poetry, someone said he was a proper shaper, and the name stuck.
When Shaper was star on the Offaly team, Shane Lowry was ten years old and a fan. The relationship deepened five or six years later when Shaper came back from New York one summer with a brand new Titleist Vokey wedge in his golf bag.
Where did you get that? asked the now 16-year-old Lowry.
America, said Shaper. You can have it if you want.
No, I couldnt take it. Its brand new.
Its yours, said Shaper.
Shaper eventually came home from New York and by then Shane Lowry was one of the Irelands better young golfers. Watching him play, Shaper thought the kid could do with a caddie and offered his services. At the time he was a self-employed building contractor and took days off and holidays to carry his young friends bag. His only payment was the joy of being inside the ropes when this young fellow swung a golf club.
On the way to Castlebellingham, Shane spoke about the house, it was costing just 400 euro for the week but heating and electricity were extra. Shaper said that if things went well, Shane was well capable of making the cut. Dont be talking like that, said Lowry. As they were leaving the house on the Tuesday morning for that practice round with McIlroy, Shane turned all serious. Your job this week, he said to Shaper, is to make sure that when we leave the house all the lights and the heating are turned off.
When they got to the course, a Ban Garda stopped noticed the Offaly registration on their Mitsubishi Colt. Up for the golf, lads, she said. Im playin in it, said Shane. Yeah, right, she said with a knowing smile.
The Lowrys from Ferbane are one of the great gaelic football families. Sean, Michael and Brendan all played in that epic 1982 All Ireland final when Offaly beat the sports greatest ever team, Kerry. Some, more acquainted with the family claim Eamonn was actually the most talented of the brothers all but he had a terrible temper.
About Eamonn they used to say that if he was a cow, he would fill your bucket quicker than any beast in the milking parlour but just as you were admiring the result, he would lash out with a hind leg and knock over the bucket. Sean was a very good centre back, commanding as much with his presence as his football. Michael, on the other hand, was tenacious and big hearted, the kind of selfless defender every team needed.
But Shanes dad, Brendan, had something special. Give him six chances to score in a match and he would convert five of them on a bad day. Brendan Lowry never made a hero out of the goalkeeper. They talk of an U.21 County Final, Ferbane against Tullamore when Brendan was announcing his talent. Ferbane were down by a point with a minute on the clock when he got the chance to kick the ball over the bar and earn his team a replay. The thought never crossed his mind because he saw only the net and his explosive shot bulged it.
Jaysus Brendan, said the teams full forward Paul Mollen afterwards. What were you thinking of going for the goal. I would have taken the point and not risked it.
Well Paul, said Brendan, I suppose thats the difference between you and me.
There is a gene out there, it has no name but in the world of sport, its precious. It allows a footballer to see the net rippling before he unleashes his shot, a tennis player to see chalk rising from the baseline before he hits that forehand and, perhaps, it is most useful in the game of golf. For the carrier of this gene sees nothing but the flag when he looking at the green. It was natures gift to Shane Lowry, to transport that little gene from father to son.
Sean knew it was there from the day he first played a round with Shane. It was a classic in Moate Golf Club in County Westmeath, Brendan was supposed to play but had to pull out at the eleventh hour. Young Shane will go instead of me, he said to his brother. Sean called round for the lad who was then 13 and had just taken up the game.
He had a small, pencil-thin golf bag, six or seven clubs no more, like arrows in a quiver. What are you playing off, I said. Thirteen, said Shane. I thought that was fairly low for a newcomer and on a course hed never seen, I didnt expect much. What I remember is that he never asked me a question about the course, nothing about distance to the green, or the line of a putt. Nothing. He stood on the tees, saw the fairway, hit it in the fairway, saw the green and hit it on the green. And he started with seven straight pars.
He was the most humble gossun that youve ever met. He had all the shots but he never let on and even when his handicap went to plus five, you still felt you were playing with a 15-handicap.
Some days Brendan, Sean, Michael and young Shane would make a fourball and their nephew swung the club so beautifully, it made his uncles want to weep. How could you take the money from a kid with a swing like that? So they settled for mind games. Theres a young lad, Michael would say loud enough for everyone to hear, who never had to wheel turf or turn hay. You know what Michael, said Sean, youre dead right.
Brendan Lowry didnt get excited easily. When members at Esker Hills told him they thought his young lad had a special talent, Brendan would merely say, Well, he spends a lot of time at it anyway. But Brendan has always seemed more severe than he is. Being dead-eyed in front of goal was one thing, watching his son play in important golf tournaments was another. On the biggest days, Brendan would avoid people on the golf course because if someone happened to say to him that he must be proud of the lad, he would break down.
Brendan knew his son had a chance on the afternoon he won his first important tournament, the Leinster Boys Championship. That afternoon Brendan followed at a distance, not wanting his son to see him for fear it would make him nervous. So he walked behind others, stood in the background and when Shane was coming down the 18th with a chance to win the competition Brendan was watching from behind a curtain in the clubhouse. He saw Shanes playing partner chip in from well off the green, then saw his son hole a six-foot putt. Scrutinising his boy for a reaction, Brendan picked up nothing. He reached into the hole, picked up his ball, shook the hand of his playing partner and walked off. Not a flicker to indicate whether hed won or lost. Brendan went to greet him. Yeah Dad, I won. Isnt it great? And dead-eyed, soft-hearted Brendan was impressed by that. Seriously impressed.
After two practice days at Baltray, Shane and Shaper began to feel conscious about their grand little Mitsubishi. Every other player in the tournament was being chauffeured here and there in top of the range Audis. Courtesy cars, they call them. Shaper thought they were entitled to be in a courtesy car but which of them would ask. In this respect, Shane was useless. And anyway, he liked the Mitsubishi.
The crew arrived filled the house in Castlebellingham as the week went on. Shanes girlfriend Deirdre Molloy, his young brother Alan, his uncles Mark and John Scanlon, his best friend Noel Henry, all packed like happy little sandiness onto beds, airbeds and couch. And they watched television in the evenings, mostly with their overcoats on and the lights off.
Shane began his first professional tournament with a 67 and followed it up with a 62 and after 36 holes, he was joint leader of the Irish Open Golf Championship. Feck this for a game of soldiers, thought Shaper after that 62. And when Shane was taken away to the media tent to answer questions about one of the most extraordinary rounds in the history of Irish golf, Shaper went to the tent that dealt in courtesy cars.
He introduced himself and they spoke about a man he didnt know: MR. LOWRY. Of course, MR. LOWRY is welcome to use our courtesy car service? Would MR. LOWRY like one of the hostesses to collect him in the morning? What time would be good for MR. LOWRY? And for a few seconds, Dave Shaper Reynolds tugged at his imaginary upturned collar and felt like a film star.
They travelled to the course the next morning in a chauffeur-driven Audi A8 and Shane Lowry felt like a new man. Not because of the new wheels but because of the previous days 62. I had thought of myself as one of those players who would turn pro, spend a couple of years on the Challenge Tour and hopefully graduate to the European Tour after that. Then I shot 62, dont know where it came from but it showed I wasnt afraid to go low. I realised I was a bit better than I thought I was. I also knew that I could win the Irish Open.
I mean its no good having a share of the lead at halfway and be thinking it would be great to finish in the top five. Why would shoot for a point when the net was right there in front of you?
Brendan and the boys used to think they were clever. Wait for the sound of Coronation Street on the television and then a nod, a wink, a gentle elbow and they were all in the car headed for Esker Hills. They used to joke theyd have six holes played before they were missed. Bridgie used to think they werent half as clever as they thought, sometimes she was happy to be rid of them for a couple of hours.
What she liked about her two boys playing golf was that the game thought them good manners. It was the heartbreak she found hard. When Shane was 18 he played in his first mens amateur tournament, The West of Ireland Open at Rosses Point. After 36 holes, he was leading qualifier and elated. But a playing partner, who had marked his card, put a four where there should have been a three, and a three where there should have been a four. The total was correct, the details were wrong, Shane signed for it and was disqualified.
Bridgie remembers how that broke his heart, how he cried when he came home and how it took him days to get back to himself. She walked towards the 18th hole on Sunday, Shanes girlfriend Deirdre alongside her. I know what youre thinking Bridgie, said Deirdre, but please dont say it. They were both remembering what happened at the 18th a year before in the East of Ireland Championship when Shane had a chance of winning. Eight he had on the hole, a suicidal, card-wrecking eight.
On the way home, he told the women that the 18th at Baltray had never done him any favours. Now he had a four-foot putt to become the first amateur in the history of golf to win his first pro tournament. Bridgie thought about that East of Ireland but held her tongue. Shane hit his first truly bad putt of the round, the ball didnt even wave as it went by the hole and he slumped down, his head resting on his knees, his cap pulled over his face a human ostrich trying to get his head into the sand.
And Bridgie thought she heard her heart break. The really hard thing, she said, is that you just have to stay where you are, when you want to run over to him, put your arms around him and tell him it doesnt matter. Three play-off holes later, Shane Lowry edged past Robert Rock to win the Irish Open Championship, in those deciding holes he hit a rescue club 230 yards, straight as an arrow, to the front of the 18th green.
Then on the same hole 15 minutes later, he had 269 yards to the pin. He hit 3-wood to 12 feet. In the driving rain and the pressure of his national championship, the young amateur had hit two of the finest shots we had ever seen. Most of the Esker Hills crew gathered in the Carlsberg tent afterwards; one drink followed another and they got Deirdre to ring Shane, who had just finished his interviews.
You better come down here, she said. He came through the rain, the trophy under his right arm. They gathered in a big group and applauded his entrance. With a voice to die for, his uncle John Scanlon began to sing The Offaly Rover.
Come close my friends and neighbours, fill your glasses to the brim
And well toast our Offaly hero from the heather, hill and glen.
Bridgie heard her brother sing and said what she always said at such moments, People talk about the Lowrys, the Scanlons are just as talented.
Noel Egan grew up with Shane Lowry in Clara. They were best friends from the time kids first make friends. Last week people were asking what Shane is like. He told them all the same thing. Shane Lowry, he says, is the nicest fellow Ive ever known. Always was, always will be. Has a smile for everyone, just a lovely jolly fellow. And they ask how hell do on the pro tour. To do well, says Noel, he only has to be Shane.
A few days before the Irish Open, Noel was having a drink in his local, Baggots Back Door in Clara, when a friend of his called and said the Paddy Power bookmakers in Tullamore were going 3000-1 Shane to win at Baltray. Egan genuinely felt Shane could win the Irish Open and though he made only three bets in his life and never staked more than ten euro, he decided to put 50 each way on his best friend.
The difficulty was that when he put his card into the hole in the wall, the response was disappointing. His brother Gerard agreed to loan him the hundred but when Gerard got to the bookies, he rang and said hed put 25 each way on for him. Fifty is enough, said Gerard. No, said Noel, please put on 50 each way. If the truth is told, Noel Egan had already calculated his winnings, 187,000 euro - enough to set him up for life.
Gerard agreed. And he had 25 each way for a friend, ten each way for another friend and ten each way for himself. On Friday evening after Shane shot 62 and was joint leader going into the weekend, Noel felt the 187 grand was in the bag. He couldnt help thinking of what he might do with the winnings. He would pay off his ten grand loan at the Credit Union, he would change his nine-year-old car that leaks oil onto the driveway at his parents home, he would buy his mum something lovely and he would take Shane shopping.
Then on Monday morning, after the show was over, Noel saw it in a newspaper. A spokesman for the Paddy Power organisation said there had been a mistake, some punters had been given 3000-1 Shane Lowry to win the Irish Open when the price should have been 300-1. They had tried to contact the punters who had been given this erroneous price but had not got to all of them. Noel Egan and his brothers friends hadnt heard a thing from Paddy Power.
Their dockets said 3000-1. It was the price they had been given. Gerard, a mild-mannered man, spoke with a high-up representative of the bookies. He was told Paddy Power didnt mind bad publicity and that if the lads took on the might of Paddy Power, they wouldnt win and might get nothing. Then they were offered 1000-1, and had until the following morning to decide. They then got another call and were told the 1000-1 offer was available for ten minutes and then it would be withdrawn.
Ten minutes to decide, Noel Egan accepted. Even if it was 125 grand short of what he felt entitled to, 62 grand was a lot of money. But thats not the reason Noel accepted. Rather it was out of loyalty to Shane, the truest friend hes ever had. I know what was done to us was wrong. With that ten minutes thing, I feel we were blackmailed. But how could I complain about getting 62 grand when Shane played unbelievable golf to win a tournament worth 500 grand and didnt get a penny. What kind of ungrateful bastard would I have been to say 62 grand wasnt enough?
From amateur winner to pro
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Shane Lowry is the only amateur golfer to win the first professional tournament he has entered
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He is the third player on the European tour to win a tournament as an amateur. Spains Pablo Martin won the Estoril Open in Portugal in 2007 and turned professional soon after. He has not won since
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Danny Lee then won the Johnnie Walker Classic in Australia in February. The New Zealander was 18 and turned pro after The Masters in April
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Phil Mickelson was still an amateur when he won on the US tour in 1991 and has gone on to claim three majors as a professional
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Lowry turned pro on Thursday and plays in the European Open in Kent later this week
