‘People believe what they want to believe' – Golf star Shane Lowry's prickly response to question about his drinking
Lowry, 38, won the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush in 2019 and celebrated in style with selfies of him hitting the nightspots of Dublin.
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The Irishman is back in Portrush for this week's Open Championship, and was immediately reminded of his boozy celebrations six years ago.
'That's an interesting first question, isn't it? We're here to talk about golf and all anybody wants to talk about is drinking,' the Ryder Cup star said.
Rewind to 2019 and Lowry gave the world an exhibition on how to celebrate a sporting triumph with a week-long party.
He also shared plenty of images on Instagram of his party to toast his victory at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in 2022 when he was joined by pop star and avid golf fan Niall Horan.
It's an image that Lowry is keen to downplay these days… although needless to say he would probably do it all again should he triumph this weekend back at his favourite course.
Lowry said: Golf's a funny game where you lose more than you win, so when you win you need to enjoy those victories.
"I'll let people believe what they want to believe (about my drinking). The people close to me know what I'm like.
'I do enjoy it from time to time but I know when I need to put my head down.
"You can't be at the top of any sport unless you apply yourself."
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Lowry admitted that he failed to spot the giant mural celebrating his Open win - even though it is about 25 feet high!
The painting of Lowry raising the Claret Jug at Portrush covers the entire side of a house, and is just around the corner from the course.
But when he made his first trip back to the scene of his greatest triumph, just before the Irish Open last September, Lowry and his team forgot to make the small detour.
He said: 'I'll be completely honest, we were in a rush leaving Portrush, and we totally forgot about going in to see it!
'I swear to God, we were ten miles down the road, and we suddenly realised we didn't get a picture of me standing in front of it, which we'd fully intended to do.
'By then it was too late to turn back, because we were on our way to the Irish Open at County Down. But I've seen it since, and I think it's pretty cool what they did there.
'People keep sending me pictures standing beside it - some of them I can't say what they're doing in it!
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"I've done something special in my life, and they've acknowledged that, and I think that's pretty cool too.'
Lowry is currently 18th in the world rankings and so far this season has finished tied for 42nd at The Masters, and missed the cut at the US Open and the PGA Championship.
He admits he has struggled to work out why it all clicked at The Open in 2019 and why he has been unable to repeat the feat since.
Lowry said: "I've spent six years trying to work that out. My results were really good going into it.
'I was playing solid golf, then I came to a place I knew and loved. It all clicked. I was playing some of the best golf of my life.
'A few people close to me have said they knew I was ready - I wish they'd told me because I didn't think it.
'I was quite up-tight about it but that's just because you want to play so well. You never really know why. It just happened and I count myself quite lucky.'
Lowry said the key could be playing poorly in the practice rounds, so his expectations are lowered and his focussed sharpened.
He said: 'Here in 2019, I had a meltdown because I felt like I wasn't going to play well but that focuses me.
'If I get my complacency away and my expectations down, I'm at my best. I played well the last two days so that's not good.
"I just need to play s**t for a few days and everything will be alright.'
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