Straka, who birdied three of the final five holes in shooting four-under 66 to beat Lowry by one, may have been the beneficiary of the meteorological whims, but nobody can say he didn’t seize the moment.
Almost a year on from having to cancel the Open Championship at Royal St George’s, the R&A is currently planning three events – no crowd, limited crowd, unrestricted crowd – for 2021.
Shane Lowry should be at Royal St George’s Golf Club defending the claret jug this week. Instead, he’s at Muirfield Village Golf Club after the Open Championship was cancelled and the Memorial was moved back six weeks.
Because of the 13 cancelled events, plenty of big-name golfers who thought they had time to play their way into the top 125 are now sitting on the bubble.
The man who claimed the claret jug by six shots at Royal Portrush last year hit the links for the first time in six weeks recently and shared a video of him attempting a pitch shot. Let’s just say, it did not go well.
Almost exactly halfway through his reign as “champion golfer of the year”, Shane Lowry doesn’t have to look far for good things in his professional life.