Shane Lowry is heading to Bethpage with ambition burning as fiercely as ever. At 38, the Irish golfer admits that while his career has already brought him an Open Championship, a Ryder Cup win, and national pride at the Irish Open, the hunger for more remains.
Lowry has long shared a close friendship with Rory McIlroy, but their parallel journeys have sparked inevitable comparisons. Watching McIlroy lift the Masters trophy this year to complete his career grand slam, and then win a second Irish Open, stirred mixed feelings for Lowry. Proud of his compatriot, yet candidly jealous, he confessed that the sight of those triumphs sharpened his own desire to achieve more. “I want everything,” he says. “The reason I get up in the morning is because I still feel there’s more out there for me.”
That motivation is driven not by overconfidence but by a constant battle with self-doubt. Even now, Lowry admits he plays with a fear of failure. From his early amateur days, where he often felt overshadowed, to his breakthrough victory as an amateur at the 2009 Irish Open, he has used that inner tension as fuel. Far from seeing himself as Europe’s golden boy, Lowry’s career has been one of persistence, resilience, and proving he belongs among the elite.
The Ryder Cup provides the perfect stage for that determination. Lowry still recalls the bruising defeat at Whistling Straits in 2021, when Europe were humbled by the USA. “There’s no point just making the team and getting beaten,” he says. “You want to go there and win.” That experience only deepened his resolve to deliver more this time around.
Bethpage will be a daunting venue, with a famously passionate New York crowd, but Lowry insists he relishes the challenge. Married in the city and deeply fond of it, he refuses to see the atmosphere as hostile. Instead, he views it as an opportunity to etch his name into Ryder Cup history.
For Lowry, the chance to add another Ryder Cup victory on American soil would be the crowning moment of a career already rich in achievements. Yet it is his relentless pursuit of more—driven by envy, ambition, and fear—that continues to define him as he prepares for one of golf’s greatest tests.
