If the title itself evaded his clutches, Shane Lowry’s endeavours in the US Open – a career-best runner-up finish in a Major – have propelled him back into contention for a place on Europe’s team in defence of the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine, outside Minneapolis, this season.
Lowry – who defends his WGC-Bridgestone Invitational next week in Akron, where there are no Ryder Cup qualifying points available, rather than playing in the French Open where there are double points on offer – has moved to 10th in both the world points qualifying and European Tour points qualifying table.
In collecting a cheque for €660,758 Lowry moved to ninth in the latest Race to Dubai table, and jumped from 41st to 25th in the latest official world rankings.
Importantly from a Ryder Cup perspective, Lowry is now in a position to push on and claim an automatic place.
Direct clash
Although he is defending at the Bridgestone – it was put into a direct clash with the French Open, a move that antagonised the European Tour which decided that no Ryder Cup points would be award for the WGC event – rather than going to Paris, Lowry has a strong schedule ahead which effectively leaves Ryder Cup qualification in his own hands: after Akron he will be playing the Scottish Open, the British Open and the US PGA.
There are nine automatic places in Ryder Cup qualifying – four from the world points list, five from the European Tour points list – with captain Darren Clarke having three “wild card” picks to dispense when he makes his decision on August 28th.
Lowry, who carried a four stroke lead over Johnson into the final round at Oakmont only to shoot a closing 76, could take some solace from contending into the back nine of the final round and for the way he responded to three successive three-putt bogeys from the 14th to close with pars on the final two holes.
Good enough
Lowry, now with back-to-back top-10s in the US Open, was back playing golf at Royal Dublin yesterday in a corporate outing and plans to take a few days to assess his performance at Oakmont. “I’m definitely good enough to win one of these, so I’ll get back on the horse [at Akron]. I’m looking forward to defending there.”
