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Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Shane Lowry is only too aware of the mural of his tale - and the Open legacy it represents as he returns to Portrush in search of more history
Shane Lowry took the question on board, began to chuckle and then immediately made the universal gesture to signify a change of direction. 'Yes I've seen it,' Lowry replied with a wry smile. 'I'm happy I have to drive the other way. I'm staying at the opposite end of town, so I don't have to drive past it every day.' Taking that answer on face value, you would think 'it' was some blot on this glorious costal landscape when 'it', actually, is something quite magnificent – a striking mural at the gable end of a house on Causeway Street, close to the course. There is Lowry, beaming, with The Claret Jug in his hand, the defining image from July 21, 2019. That was the day he conquered Royal Portrush, the day life changed; he obliterated his field by six shots and left the island of Ireland exultant, with his social media channels jamming with well wishes. A mural in his honour, then, has to be regarded as the ultimate recognition. Initially, as we spoke, the self-effacing Lowry didn't consider the connotations of what his victory meant – and continues to mean – but, eventually, he spoke about the enormity and the smile was as big as the one on the wall. 'It was an amazing day for the country and me and my family and everyone around me,' said Lowry. 'I don't think it changed me much as a person. I didn't sit back and scroll through all the tweets or, when my mural was put on the wall, I didn't think I've immortalised myself. 'Honestly, I'm just myself. I just happen to be okay at golf and lucky enough that I got to achieve some pretty cool things. Honestly, that's how I feel about it. But, yes, the mural is very special. I remember when they asked us about this. I didn't know what to make of it at the start. 'Then they completed it… Everyone that comes up here sends me pictures of them standing beside it! Some of them I can't say what they were doing! But it is very special. I've done something special in my life. They've acknowledged that here and I think that's very cool. It is cool, yeah.' It really is. Some would have you believe Lowry is more interested in having a good time rather than excelling at his profession – he really wasn't happy how the first question of his media briefing was about his celebrations six years ago rather than golf – but nothing could be further from the truth. Lowry is the kind of man who will come alive during golf's most important week of the season and, had it not been for dreadful conditions on day three at Royal Troon, he could easily have lined up as the defending champion: it broke his heart that he couldn't overhaul Xande Schauffele last year. Might compensation be on its way? The 38-year-old has spent much of the last fortnight limbering up on courses he knows well, from Adare Manor to Baltray and Portmarnock, and being 'home' for the first time in 2025 has done him the world of good. There have been a couple of hiccups in recent months – not least missing the cut at The US Open – but he hopes and feels change is coming. He is never better than when a fire is burning inside and if you see him chuntering and muttering on the fairways before Thursday take that as a positive. 'Sometimes when everything is going really well, I get complacent,' he explained. 'I feel like when things are not going well that is when I'm at my best, like going back to 2019 here – I had a meltdown on the Wednesday because I thought I wasn't going to go out and play well. 'But then that focuses me in a little bit more. If I can keep my complacency away and my expectation down, that's when I'm at my best. How am I feeling? I've had a great week of practice, so that's not great! I just need to play **** for the next couple of days and I'll be all right!' With that, there was uproarious laughter and another flash of the smile that now adorns Causeway Street. He's desperate to feel that way again come Sunday evening.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Shane Lowry: ‘If I win another one, I'll celebrate twice as much'
The gable end of a house on Causeway Street in Portrush delivers a reminder of Shane Lowry's Open triumph in 2019 . The fantastic mural not only depicts Lowry with the Claret Jug in hand, but how Ireland, whether North or South, unites behind its sportspeople. Lingering memories from six years ago recall Lowry stretching away from the field towards the end of round three. He was in an unassailable position. The subsequent epic, week-long celebrations are another key reference point; the new Open champion showed the sporting world how to party and it fuelled a misconception, a tired cliche of the bearded, drinking Irishman. 'I have always been conscious of that, but I have also always enjoyed myself,' Lowry says. 'I work my nuts off. You can't play at this level without doing that. If I win another one, I'll celebrate twice as good. It's so hard out here, so hard to win big tournaments, that when you do, you need to enjoy them. 'Players came to me afterwards ... I remember Martin Kaymer's caddie telling me: 'Martin regrets not doing what you did because when he was winning majors, world number one, he took it for granted a little bit.' You need to enjoy the moments.' READ MORE A mural of Shane Lowry, the last winner at Portrush, on the side of a house on Causeway Street in Portrush, Northern Ireland. Photograph:The Open's return to Northern Ireland turns thoughts back towards what Lowry achieved. The outpouring of emotion was due in part to what he encountered before the last round. He led by four with 18 holes to play – the same advantage he had at Oakmont's 2016 US Open, only to stumble painfully in Pennsylvania. 'It is what you work for and everything you dream of, but it was one of the toughest 24 hours of my life, in sporting terms,' says Lowry. 'You don't sleep. People are definitely tense around you. It is a tough place. The consequences of failure were so huge. If I didn't win that day, I still wouldn't be over it. How much it meant, where it was, all that stuff. 'Oakmont helped me, 100 per cent. I went out in the final round there not to lose the tournament. At Portrush, I went out to win. I said to Neil [Manchip, Lowry's coach] that Sunday morning: 'If I can make five birdies today, nobody can beat me.' Even if I made five bogeys as well and shot level, nobody was beating me in that weather. That was the mindset. At Oakmont, I went out to make pars and let it all slip.' Shane Lowry celebrates with caddie Bo Martin on the 18th hole during the final round of the 148th Open Championship on the Dunluce Links at Royal Portrush Golf Club, July 2019. Photograph:Lowry felt at home on the Dunluce Links, where he was roared on towards victory by a mix of total strangers and those closest to him. 'Until I played my tee shot on the 17th on Sunday, I didn't allow myself to think, 'This is it.' I hit that one and realised I could kick it in from there, I had a six-shot lead. 'I was looking out for people. I saw a lot of friends at the top of the 18th grandstand. Turning the dog-leg corner at the last, I could see my daughter ... she was only two-and-a-half at the time and had this bright yellow jacket on. I could see that right behind the flag, in the tunnel at the back of the 18th green. A wave of emotion came over me. I could have cried. I remember my caddie saying to me something like: 'Man up, you still have a shot to hit.' [ Open 2025: The five Irish players who will tee it up at Royal Portrush Opens in new window ] 'At the back of the 18th, most of the people who have been hugely influential in my career were there. My parents were there, my coach, Graeme McDowell, Pádraig Harrington. It was incredible.' Lowry used to regularly watch footage of his Open glory. He does less of that now. 'I would give anything to be able to stand there and experience the 18th hole again,' he says. 'It all happened so quickly that it really is like a blur. The only way you can place yourself there is by looking at videos. It's amazing to have all the YouTube videos, for my kids and hopefully grandkids when everyone gets older.' Shane Lowry with the Claret Jug, the trophy awarded to the champion golfer of the year, after winning the British Open golf Championships at Royal Portrush in July 2019. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images The one exception was that round three run. While en route to a 63, Lowry played the back nine in 30. Portrush had been battered into submission as he led the field a merry dance. 'People talk about being in the zone. Those last four or five holes, that is the one time in my career where I felt that and thought I knew what it was. 'I felt like I was going to birdie every hole. If I had another nine holes to play, I felt like I would birdie all of them as well. That is where I won the tournament.' Lowry's victory lap was distorted by the arrival of a pandemic. At the 2020 Players Championship, golf followed the global trend of shutdown. 'A lot of people were in far worse situations than me, but I felt a little hard done by where it was all a bit weird going to the biggest events as the Open champion,' Lowry says. 'I didn't get the full experience. 'My game also suffered during Covid. Rory [McIlroy] was the same. We played a lot, played really well in games against each other, then we would come on tour and the lack of crowds and energy affected us. I really hated that. Shane Lowry reacts to a shot on the 18th hole during the first round of the Travelers Championship 2025 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Connecticut. Photograph:'I remember going home from Sawgrass and being a little lost for a few weeks. I had spent close to 20 years with a purpose, with something to work towards, then one day it was taken away. I realised how lucky we have it when things got back to normal.' Lowry has joked that McIlroy's grand slam triumph takes focus off him for the Portrush return. Yet it is a truism that one so talented should really have more than one major to their name. 'It definitely helps that I have one because if I didn't by now, it would be doing my head in,' he says. 'I have to stress this is not me lacking drive, but if I was to pack it in today I would be pretty happy with what I have. That doesn't at all mean I don't want more.' – Guardian
CBS News
17-05-2025
- Sport
- CBS News
The Celtics title defense ended in embarrassing fashion. Now comes an offseason of uncertainty.
The title defense is over for the Boston Celtics. Boston went out with a whimper Friday night, getting absolutely slaughtered by the New York Knicks, 119-81, at Madison Square Garden to lose their second-round playoff series in six games. This is not at all how the summer was supposed to go for the Celtics, who were looking to become the NBA's first repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018. Instead, they became the fourth straight defending champ to fall in the second round. Now, Boston's summer is beginning earlier than anyone wanted. Instead of a parade and a ton of confetti, this summer will be filled with a lot of uncertainty on Causeway Street. Celtics get embarrassed by Knicks The entire series against the Knicks was a disaster and an abject failure for the Celtics. They owned the Knicks during the regular season and beat them all four times they squared off. The Celtics raised their 2024 banner in front of the Knicks on Opening Night and proceeded to crush their Eastern Conference foe, 132-109. Three of those four victories were by double digits. But the Knicks completely flipped the script in the playoffs. The Celtics lost the first two games of the series at home despite leading by 20 points in the second half of each game. After blowing out the Knicks in Game 3 in New York, the Celtics once again let a double-digit lead slip away in Game 4 to fall into a 3-1 hole. The most costly loss that night was superstar Jayson Tatum, who suffered a ruptured Achilles with just a few minutes remaining. Losing Tatum obviously put a giant pothole in the road to a repeat. But losing Tatum was no excuse for losing Game 4; the Knicks were up nine when he went down after erasing a 14-point second-half deficit. Boston bounced back in Game 5 and won by 25 on their home court thanks to a complete team effort, including huge nights from Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and reserve big man Luke Kornet. For at least one night, there was some hope the Tatum-less Celtics might be able to do some damage. But then the Celtics suffered one of the franchise's worst postseason losses Friday night to lose the series and end their season. The Knicks got up early and never looked back, leading by as many as 41 points to cap off their six-game series win. The Celtics were a step slow on both ends of the floor throughout the game, as the Knicks outhustled them for 25 second-chance points and outmuscled them for 48 points in the paint. There was nothing redeeming from the Celtics from their embarrassing Game 6. The Knicks deserve a lot of credit for completely outplaying the Celtics in crunch time for three games, and then absolutely trouncing the defending champs to secure the franchise's first trip to the Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years. But the Celtics did a lot to give them this series. The Celtics blew any shot at repeating by blowing those first two games of the series. Their offense wasn't efficient against the New York defense throughout set, they struggled with the three-ball for large stretches, and late defensive lapses were common in the series. Winning one title in the NBA isn't easy, let alone winning back-to-back crowns. But to lose in such disappointing, embarrassing fashion is not the way anyone thought the defending champs would go out -- especially to the Knicks. "Losing to the Knicks feels like death," Brown said Friday night. "But I was always taught that there is life after death." Now we're all left wondering what the Celtics are going to look like next season, and when they'll be back in the championship conversation. What's next for the Boston Celtics? The future is somewhat murky for the Celtics right now. Barring an incredible recovery, Tatum is likely going to miss the entire 2025-26 season. There's a chance he could return in 8-9 months, but he probably won't be his usual self until the the 2026-27 season -- if he does return to form after such a devastating injury. The absence of Tatum creates a lot of uncertainty about the road ahead for the Celtics. Changes are coming this summer. The championship window for the team that brought home Banner 18 is likely closed now, as veterans like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis could be dealt away in the offseason as a way for the franchise's new ownership to get under the second apron and avoid a hefty, hefty luxury tax bill for a team that probably won't contend for a title. Holiday is turning 35 this summer, but he still brings a lot on the defensive end and even more to the locker room. Several teams will come calling about his services. We're not sure if the same can be said about Porzingis, who has one year left on his contract. He was instrumental to last year's incredible regular season before he battled injuries throughout the playoffs, and then battled a mysterious illness at the end of this regular season and through the postseason. It left him a shell of a shell of his usual self; Porzingis was more of a detriment than a unicorn whenever he was on the floor. Chances are Brown, White, and Sixth Man of the Year Payton Pritchard will be back, but you never really know in the NBA. Given the fact Luka Doncic was traded at the deadline, just about anyone could be moved in the Association. In terms of free agency, veteran Al Horford and Kornet are set to hit the open market. Whatever happens, the Celtics are going to look a lot different when they take the floor to start next season. There will be no Tatum for a while, and there will probably be a few other members of the 2024 championship squad no longer in green. Last year's banner will always hang in TD Garden. But the sour taste from the team's failed bid at a repeat -- topped with a blowout loss to the Knicks -- is going to take a while to go away.
Boston Globe
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Boston, stop living in the past
Thanks to the science of cryogenics — portions of Williams's body are Advertisement Hardly had we shaken off the dust from Opening Day than we were greeted by the inevitable, garment-rending Having said that, a bombing that claimed three fatalities in Gaza or Ukraine wouldn't cause anyone to cancel a day at the beach. 'Hundreds killed in Darfur in the past week alone,' said a You would think it's time to move on. But we won't. Boston is the city that is always looking back, never looking forward — 'a winter city,' as the embittered ex-Bostonian Elizabeth Hardwick called it in a Advertisement Don't get me wrong. I love Boston history. I think it's grand that people It's the mawkish sentimentality of manufactured nostalgia that rankles me. To be fair, some progress has been made. We seem to have finally shucked off the Kennedys, and none too soon, as the And, after three solid years of stultifying Brady-Belichick-Kraft programming, my beloved sports talk radio seems to have finally moved on to more pressing concerns, e.g., how Mike Vrabel will mess up the NFL draft and how the Celtics will run the table in the National Basketball Association playoffs. Good luck with that. Advertisement By way of self-torture, I have watched a few episodes of the HBO series In the first episode, the producers stuck a microphone in the face of a contemporary Causeway Street fanatic, who insisted that 'Bill Russell is in the house, Johnny Most is in the house, Red Auerbach is in the house …' His conclusion? 'The ghosts are out, you can feel it.' Yes, I can feel it all too well. Alex Beam's column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him
