Shane Lowry has said he is delighted to have made it to the top 50 of golf’s world rankings and sounded a confident note about 2015, saying he is looking forward to playing “against the best players in the world, and not only play against them, but beat them as well.”
A fifth-place finish at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai at the weekend moved the Offaly man to 47th in the rankings, and in line for a invitation to next year’s Masters at Augusta National.
Asked about his place in the top 50, Lowry was clearly delighted with his place amongst golf’s global elite and said it was where he felt he belonged.
“It feels great,” he told RTÉ Sport. “It’s taken me a while to do it. It just feels great that I’m going competing against the best in the world.
“Because at the end of the day I see myself being one of the best players in the world, and I really want to play against the players in the world, and not only play against them, but beat them as well.”
"I see myself being one of the best players in the world" - Shane Lowry
Lowry’s ascent into the top 50 had looked at risk after a disappointing end to his third round in Dubai, but he was proud of how he bounced back on Sunday to secure fifth spot.
“I spoke with my coach, Neil [Manchip], on Saturday evening, in the locker room, after I’d finished my round,” he said. “Having bogeyed the last and finished my round poorly, I was a bit deflated.
“It has been hanging over my shoulders for a couple of years, this whole top 50 thing. I didn’t know how to feel about it. I just wanted to go into January, into that run of tournaments, without it hanging over my head again, and that was the main reason I was trying so hard these last few months to get over that hurdle.
“Thankfully, I went out Sunday and showed a lot of character, and a lot of courage, really, to shoot the score I did and ended up finishing where I did.”
Lowry admitted to anxiety as he tried to reconcile where he felt he should be on the world leaderboard with the performances and consistency needed to get him there.
"I went out Sunday and showed a lot of character, and a lot of courage, really, to shoot the score I did" - Shane Lowry
“[In] golf, you don’t get handed anything. You need to earn everything you get. I feel like I’m good enough to not only be a top 50 player in the world but to be well above that and to be competing for Majors and big tournaments.
“But at the end of the day, I didn’t really... I competed a few times this year in big events; I finished second twice.
“So it takes time to earn your place in the elite of world golf. I’ve spent five and a half years on tour now, and I think I’ve earned and hopefully I can kick on from here now, and contend in some of those bigger events next year.”
Lowry reckoned that “it is almost mathematically impossible” for him to now fall back out of the top 50 by the end of the year, meaning that he is all but certain to receive an invitation for next year’s Masters at Augusta National.
“I’m playing Sun City [at the Nedbank Challenge] next week, and there’s some good world ranking points there as well, so hopefully I can go there and kick on, and keep my recent form going. I think I’m pretty much done and dusted, and I’ll be in Augusta, hopefully, in April.”
