Shane Lowry has said he is enjoying the escapism from the "monotony" of regular season golf as he attempts to help spearhead a rare European Ryder Cup win on American soil.
The Offaly native, noted for his love of team formats, is appearing for the third time having lost on American soil at Whistling Straits in 2021 before tasting victory in Rome two years later.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, he struggled to hide his excitement on the eve of the 45th staging of the competition at Bethpage Black in New York, with the ambiance of the biennial event strongly agreeing with the Irishman.
"I can't be anyone but myself," he said,
"The way I think about things is maybe different than other players. Other players might be a bit more individual but I honestly just love this, I live for this. As long as I live, I want to be involved in Ryder Cups. As long as I’m playing professional golf I want that to be the case.
"That’s just me - my coaches, my team, I talk about it a lot to them and you can’t get away from who you are.
"I’m here now and I want to perform to my best and I want to bring as much to the team as I can and ultimately I want to win.
TEAM LOWRY READY FOR BETHPAGE BEAR PIT
"Regardless of what’s gone on this year for me, I think if I win this week I’ll sit back in December and I’ll be pretty happy with myself."
Lowry said that the usual isolation of the sport often had him questioning his love of it, but that the Ryder Cup provided the perfect tonic to reignite the spark.
"Professional golf is monotonous – week in, week out you’re on your own, you’re playing practice rounds on your own, you’re sitting Tuesday morning having breakfast on your own. It can get a little bit boring and a little bit like 'what’s this all about?’.
"When you’re here this week, you’ve got your teammates, you’ve got people to laugh with, you’ve got people to be serious with, you've got people to hang on to and bounce off and feed off and I just think I enjoy that much more.
"It is what it is, it’s much more enjoyable than the week in, week out grind of professional golf and that's what I love so much about it.
"You’re not only here playing for yourself or your family or your friends or the people you try to play for all year, you're playing for things a lot more than that – that's what I love so much about this week."
Away victories are a rarity in the Ryder Cup in modern times – just two in the last 10 stagings with Europe winning in America in 2004 and 2012 – but Lowry feels there’s something special in the air in New York.
"I think if you had told someone on the Sunday evening in Whistling Straits that we would have won in Rome and that we’d be coming here to Bethpage with a chance to win I think they probably would have laughed at you.
"So to be part of a team that is coming here with a chance to do something really big, that’s a huge carrot dangling for us."
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