Whether he won or tied for 35th, Shane Lowry’s return to Royal Portrush six years after his Open championship win promised to be a special one. It has been anything but for the Irishman this week.
While his week did start with a one-under 70, things took a turn late in Friday’s second round, when cameras captured Lowry’s ball slightly moving as he took a practice swing at the par-5 12th. After a 20-minute meeting with R&A officials after the round, he was assessed a two-stroke penalty, dropping him from two under to even par. That put him 10 strokes back of Scottie Scheffler’s lead after 36 holes.
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“It’s hard. It’s hard to take,” Lowry said on Saturday. “You get home late and have to dust yourself off.”
Somehow, after dusting himself off, things got infinitely worse for the 38-year-old. Back at the house he’s staying in with his family this week, Lowry woke up in the middle of the night not feeling so hot.
“Wake up at 2:30 with cramps in my stomach,” he said. “I know we have it in the house. Ivy [Lowry’s youngest daughter] had a couple of days ago. Wendy [Lowry’s wife] had it yesterday. Me and Iris [Lowry’s oldest daughter] have it today. It will be gone by the holidays next week. So at least that’s a plus.”
The holidays can’t come soon enough for Lowry, who will need something special on Sunday just to post his first top-40 of the season in a major. Given the way he’s played all season on the PGA Tour, that was certainly not what he had in mind as his 2025 majors record.
Despite feeling iffy, Lowry was able to par the difficult opening hole in his third round. A bogey at the par-5 second, which just about everybody is making birdie on Saturday, killed any potential early momentum.
“I wanted to do well so badly today and this week,” he said after shooting 74 to fall into a tie for 63rd. “I put so much into this week that, yeah, it’s hard to take.”
Not helping the mood was the fact Lowry was unable to hold any food down the entire day. He tried to suck down a protein shake after eight holes and felt like throwing it up after. He made numerous attempts to throw up in bathrooms throughout the round and was unable to make it happen.
“It’s just such a bad feeling,” he said. “I think lack of energy towards the end maybe did me in. Look, I don’t want to make excuses. It is what it is. It’s just really bad timing obviously.”
He added that if it wasn’t the Open at Portrush, he probably wouldn’t have even given it a go on Saturday. But Lowry toughed it out and he’ll tough it out again on Sunday, hopefully in much better health.
“I’ll try to get out — hopefully I get out tomorrow morning and try and enjoy it as best I can, try to shoot the best score I can, and then have a couple weeks off before the playoffs,” he said. “For me, my big mindset for the next few months is about the Ryder Cup and trying to win that. That’s where all my work is going to go towards over the next while.”
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Is it the British Open or the Open Championship? The name of the final men’s major of the golf season is a subject of continued discussion. The event’s official name, as explained in this op-ed by former R&A chairman Ian Pattinson, is the Open Championship. But since many United States golf fans continue to refer to it as the British Open, and search news around the event accordingly, Golf Digest continues to utilize both names in its coverage.
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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
