Shane Lowry is looking to build on a good body of work at this week's US Open, but admits that there is huge uncertainty around the future of the game following dramatic events off the course.
Having finished 12th (US PGA) and 16th (Masters) this season, the 36-year-old is hopeful that the glimpses he has shown this season will bode well as he looks to add a second major title.
Five successive birdies at the Memorial Tournament recently after playing the first six holes each day "horrendously" was a snapshot of his season, where he says he simply hasn’t strung four successive rounds together thus far.
"I feel pretty good," he told RTÉ Sport’s Greg Allen ahead of taking on the Los Angeles Country Club this week.
"I need to tidy up my short game a little bit. I don’t feel it has been great.
"Off the tee, although it has been okay, it doesn’t feel amazing. It’s about getting that where I feel comfortable my tee shots. I feel if I can find fairways out here I can be dangerous."
Lowry will tee-off alongside two-time major winner Justin Thomas and 2018 US Open runner-up Tommy Fleetwood (3.40pm Irish time) and is expecting a huge challenge from an unforgiving course.
"It’s going to be difficult, but there are chances there on the front nine, not many on the back nine.
"It’s rough off the bunkers, rough around the fairways. You can get decent lies, but the majority of the time it is pretty bad lies, so it is about managing that, keeping big numbers off the card and when your chances come, you’ve got to take them.
"The way I look at it is, on weeks like this, if I put myself within touching distance of the leaders on Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning going into the final round, that would be a somewhat successful week for me.
"My thing is to get myself into contention, if I can do that, I feel I have what it takes to do it.
"Often times, in tournaments like this, the hardest part is actually getting yourself there."
The tournament will be the first major to be played since the bombshell announcement of a partnership between the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV circuit.
World No. 2 Jon Rahm who said yesterday that a lot of golfers feel a sense of betrayal by PGA Tour management, while under-fire commissioner Jay Monahan is stepping away for a period of time as he recuperates from "a medical situation".
The Offaly man, who is a member of the Player Advisory Committee on Tour, admitted that tensions were high in Monahan’s recent 75-minute with the players, with Lowry saying he spoke when the possibility of boycotting last week’s Canadian Open was floated.
"I was like, right lads, let’s take a chill for a minute here. RBC have been a great sponsor to the Tour and to us. That’s not going to do anything for anybody doing that, so let’s just go out and do our jobs which is what we are here to do, and everything else will take care of itself.
"I stayed quiet enough last week, I didn’t do much media because I actually have no answers to any questions because I just don’t know.
"We don’t really know what is going on anymore. We don’t know what deal the PGA Tour have signed up for.
"I’ve said this all along, but it’s the only thing you can do as a golfer, is worry about yourself and play golf.
Will the merger talk be put to bed by time the tournament gets underway on Thursday?
"I think it will," he said. "I think in the coming weeks, us as players will have more information and we will be able to talk more about it then."
