Irishman Shane Lowry Is Smiling, But He Has a Score to Settle in the Ryder Cup

The 19-9 drubbing two years ago at Whistling Straits has become a rallying cry for the European Team.

STRAFFAN, Ireland — It’s easy to understand why Shane Lowry is smiling.

Back in Ireland to play one of his favorite events each year—the Irish Open, which has a perfect weather forecast for the week—any Irishman would be smiling.

Add in that the 15-year-pro will be the defending champion next week at the BMW PGA at Wentworth, it’s understandable why the bearded Lowry has the look of Santa Claus in December.

The fact he was one of the six captain's picks on the European Ryder Cup Team captained by Luke Donald only adds to his jocularity, having a chance to right what it seems many of the players on the 2021 Ryder Cup see as a wrong.

The 19-9 drubbing by the U.S. over the Europeans at Whistling Straits has not sat well over the last two years, and it has become a rallying cry for Luke Donald’s 12.

Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy need no reminder of the 2021 Ryder Cup result :: Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports

The plane ride back from the Hero Cup at the beginning of the year, where potential European Ryder Cuppers played in a Ryder Cup-type format in Abu Dhabi, brought all the potential members together and the discussions led back to Wisconsin.

“That one extra year of COVID, our team went from peaking to slightly off and never could come back,” 2021 captain Padraig Harrington said. “The U.S. team were peaking. That extra year got them into a great place. Many of the players were probably at their very peak in the U.S. at that stage. If you start looking at the names now with two years of hindsight, they were at the top of their game and the Europeans are only coming into that now.”

Harrington maintains that Europe has gotten a lot stronger in those two years. But the U.S?

“I don't want to say that they're weakening in any shape or form, but certainly there's a number of players that were at their peak at that moment,” Harrington said. “It's just ebbs and flows in the game of golf.”

Harrington agrees that the 2023 team is Donald’s team, with his six captain’s picks Monday being part of the imprinting process.

And while both Harrington and Lowry sing the praises of the Donald-picked team, one of the questionable parts of Donald’s picks was the absence of Poland’s Adrian Meronk.

Looking at all the numbers, Meronk fits the bill. He had also won three times since last July, including at Marco Simone in May, host site for the matches in three weeks.

“I think we have the best 12 players from Europe coming to play this Ryder Cup, and I think we're in form,” Lowry said. “A lot of players are in very good form, as you've seen over the last few weeks, and I think we're going to give it a great go this year.”

But what about Meronk?

“Well, people have their opinion, Adrian has had a great year, and obviously he's unfortunate to miss out, but somebody has to miss out,” Lowry said. “I'm not going to sit here and disagree with Luke Donald. It was his decision at the end of the day, if he thinks that somebody else is better for this team than he was.”

Which comes back to the Donald imprint.

“Coming off our worst defeat ever two years ago, you just can't be complacent,” Donald said. “We know the Americans are very strong. We just don't ever take that for granted because they are always going to have very, very strong players.”

Yet Donald, without specifics, talks of painting a picture of what the European Team’s advantages are and why there's a good chance of winning.

At that point, it's left up to the players to perform.