Rory McIlroy nudged Shane Lowry at a recent European Ryder Cup team gathering as footage of the 2006 football World Cup final was shown. \u201c\u2018We watched that match together,\u2019\u201d Lowry says McIlroy reminded him. \u201cI was like, \u2018What?\u2019 He said: \u2018Yeah, European Youths\u2019 Team Championships. Sotogrande.\u2019 From that to sitting at a Ryder Cup dinner, 19 years later is pretty cool.\u201d Next stop, Bethpage.<\/p>\n
Lowry has told his close friend that he envies him, in the nicest possible sense. The 38-year-old looked on with smiles, but green eyes, as McIlroy won the Masters<\/a> \u2013 completing a career grand slam \u2013 and produced heroics to win a second Irish Open<\/a> this month. \u201cI said to him the other day, I am starting to get really jealous,\u201d Lowry says. \u201cI also said to him that I\u00a0hope Irish people realise how lucky they are to have Rory at that level, coming back to play the Irish\u00a0Open every year.<\/p>\n \u201cHe says: \u2018Yeah, but how lucky are we to have that support?\u2019 I\u00a0was very jealous of the Masters, I was very jealous that Irish Open Sunday. I am happy for him, of course I am, but I want to achieve stuff myself.<\/p>\n \u201cI want it so badly. I want everything, I want to achieve it all. If I was to pack it all in now, would I be happy with what I have? I have had a pretty good career. But do I want more? Absolutely. That is the reason to get up in the morning.\u201d McIlroy thinks Lowry can be overly hard on himself.<\/p>\n Lowry laughs when contemplating any interviews where McIlroy is not a key topic for discussion. He jabbed back on the Saturday evening at Augusta, when his pal\u2019s Green Jacket quest was a mistimed line of questioning. \u201cI get it, I totally get it,\u201d Lowry says. \u201cBut I have just come off the course. The last thing I want to do is talk about another player doing what I am trying to do the next day.\u201d Which is fair enough.<\/p>\n By 2007, Lowry and McIlroy were part of the Ireland side that triumphed in the European Amateur Team Championship at Western Gailes. Lowry, who beat Victor Dubuisson in the final, can reel off the others in that team without effort. Lowry and Ireland defended successfully in 2008.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these guys were great players,\u201d Lowry says. \u201cI never thought I was better than any of them. Amateur golf in Ireland was really popular because of Rory. I learned a lot from that, even playing in front of decent crowds.<\/p>\n \u201cI had always looked at others as\u00a0being better than me. That helped me. I wouldn\u2019t say I played with a chip on my shoulder, but I\u00a0played with that fear of not being\u00a0good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n That sense still lingers despite Lowry sitting at the top of the game. \u201cAll the time,\u201d he says. \u201cYou play with a fear of failure. The reason I get up and work every day is because I am afraid to fail. A fear of not being good enough. I don\u2019t go to practise because I think I am good enough. I never play with loads of confidence.<\/p>\n The careers of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry (right) have been linked closely and they enjoyed success for Europe in the 2023 Ryder Cup. Photograph: Zac Goodwin\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cIn that 2007 team, I was number four, five or six. I wasn\u2019t even close to the top, I wasn\u2019t part of any Walker\u00a0Cup conversation. I took a lot of confidence from Western\u00a0Gailes, went home and won the Irish Close Championship and started doing well abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I ever realised how good I was and I was still so young. Enter tournament, play, if I didn\u2019t win I just moved on to the next week. Then I get an invite to Baltray in 2009 and bang, there you go.\u201d Lowry won that Irish Open when still an amateur.<\/p>\n McIlroy is the golden boy of European, never mind Irish, golf but glances through time link him intrinsically with Lowry. The pair diverged in 2007, when McIlroy made his Open debut and turned professional, but they return to the Ryder Cup arena this week as hugely influential members of Team Europe. They possibly have a point to prove together; at Whistling Straits in 2021, a comprehensive Friday defeat<\/a> by Tony Finau and Harris English was a miserable experience.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t even close to winning\u201d Lowry says. \u201cPeople say how great it is to make the team and all that, but there is no point in going then getting the shit beaten out of you. You want to go and win. It\u2019s the same as qualifying for the Masters; there\u2019s no point doing that\u00a0then missing the cut.\u201d<\/p>\n