{"id":188951,"date":"2025-12-13T02:07:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/188951\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T02:07:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T02:07:10","slug":"ive-always-been-conscious-about-my-weight-i-get-obsessed-with-it-at-times-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/188951\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ve always been conscious about my weight, I get obsessed with it at times\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Far from the madding crowd, quite literally. Shane Lowry<\/a> is on home turf \u2013 sitting in the snug of the Old Warehouse by the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore \u2013 and the Ryder Cup<\/a> hero is in reflective mood, surrounded by Offaly GAA jerseys emblazoned with the Carrolls Meats logo and photo images of the great and the good of the county.<\/p>\n

Nearby, though, there are reminders of Lowry\u2019s own greatness. A number of tour bags, including one with EUROPE in capitals, are dotted around the plush dining area of the establishment and that memory of his putt on the 18th at Bethpage Black to win the hole and halve his singles with Russell Henley to ensure Luke Donald\u2019s team retained the Ryder Cup \u2013 Tyrrell Hatton would later ensure retention moved on to a win \u2013 remains fresh in the memory.<\/p>\n

Why wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually think about a lot, like, probably far too much, honestly. Like, I do think about it a lot,\u201d said Lowry of that six, seven-footer which, just after Henley had missed on a similar line, disappeared into the tin cup and prompted a wild, spontaneous jig of celebration.<\/p>\n

Lowry has seen the social media posts of his wild dance around the 18th complete with Micheal O\u2019Hehir\u2019s famous commentary of S\u00e9amus Darby\u2019s winning goal for Offaly in the 1982 All-Ireland final \u2013 when Shane\u2019s father, Brendan, was also on the team \u2013 and laughs at the similarity of the two celebrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe celebration was just pure. I\u2019m sure it was like Seamus Darby, what he did, when he scored that goal, he didn\u2019t know what to do with himself. I was the same,\u201d said Lowry.<\/p>\n

\"ShaneShane Lowry celebrates a putt on the 18th green to retain the Ryder Cup for Team Europe. Photograph: David Davies\/PA <\/p>\n

Of all the long, accurate drives and brilliance of his iron play, that putt though was the golden hallmark of Lowry\u2019s season\u2019s work and added another golden touch to a career that is just two years shy of two decades long yet with more achievements surely to come his way.<\/p>\n

Lowry is now 38 years of age but looks to the likes of Justin Rose \u2013 now 45 \u2013 as a model for how to remain competitive and extend the longevity of a golfer\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

To that end, Lowry looks fitter and leaner than at any point of his career after a regime working with personal trainer Robbie Cannon, the Dubliner who \u2013 on Lowry\u2019s weeks off \u2013 will fly to Florida for hands-on weeklong sessions.<\/p>\n

Indeed, on what can be a touchy subject, Lowry offered: <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not stupid. I\u2019m 39 in April, so like, I\u2019m not getting any younger. But I do feel like I\u2019m in the best shape I\u2019ve been in, and I feel like my game is as good as it\u2019s ever been. So, I feel like there\u2019s still some of my best years are ahead of me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go back to the Ryder Cup in Whistling Straits [in 2021], where I was probably as big as I ever was. Like, the worst shape I was in, probably, but I was playing some of the best golf in my life. It\u2019s interesting, I was probably 112, 114 kilos, and now I\u2019m in around 100 kilos, like 99, 100 sort of thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s been a lot of process, strategy in it. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s easy to lose weight and get smaller, but there\u2019s a way to do it when you\u2019re a golfer, and I feel like Robbie and I have done it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIf I can get another a good five or six years out myself, I sort of have 45 in my head, I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m going to retire when I\u2019m 45 but what I\u2019m saying is I feel like if I can get to 45 still at a competitive level, I\u2019ve done very, very well, you know, because I\u2019ve done 17 years on tour now, it\u2019s a long, long time. That\u2019s a long career in a sport. And I feel like if I can get up to 20, 21, 22 years [on tour] at a high level, like, I\u2019ve had a really, really good career.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I\u2019ve always been conscious about my weight. Right? And I\u2019ve always been that way, and I\u2019ve always wanted to lose weight, and I kind of get obsessed with it at times, but having someone like Robbie, who knows the ins-and-outs and knows the way to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trust him on what he does. So yeah, I think we\u2019ve done a good job of getting it right. And I still have a long way to go, I still am working towards some goals that I have in that regards and I\u2019m trying to get stronger, I\u2019m trying to get faster, I\u2019m trying to hit the ball further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI generally don\u2019t like talking about it too much, but I actually love working out now. I love training like I really do. I wake up every day and I do it, and it\u2019s at the forefront of my mind every day, is like, \u2018What time am I going to train at?\u2019 and then I work my practice schedule around that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowry, too, has attributed being around Rory McIlroy so much \u2013 the Lowrys and the McIlroys live in the same Florida community \u2013 as another factor in focusing on fitness: \u201cRory\u2019s one of the greatest players of all time; if he\u2019s doing it, I feel like I probably should be as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that bond between the two was never more evident anywhere than at this year\u2019s Ryder Cup in New York, where the baying crowd \u2013 over the top on many occasions \u2013 made for an attritional atmosphere and when Lowry unintentionally took on the role of a protector of sorts to McIlroy in their fourballs, particularly on a raucous Saturday where the pair ultimately closed out the match on the 17th green for a two holes win over Justin Thomas and Cameron Young.<\/p>\n

\"RoryRory McIlroy and Shane Lowry of Team Europe celebrate after winning the Ryder Cup. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA <\/p>\n

Of that protective, big brother-like role, Lowry said: \u201cI wasn\u2019t really expecting that. I\u2019m semi-protective of him anyway. I feel like he always gets a hard [time], like he\u2019s Rory McIlroy, he\u2019s one of the greatest players of all time, and he puts himself on that pedestal at times and says some stuff that he probably shouldn\u2019t, but I feel like he gets like a different rap than like other players at his level. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like he gets criticised more than maybe he should do at times. Like, after the US Open in Pinehurst, I was a bit outspoken about how much s**t he was getting for that, really, but [at Bethpage] was I ever, like, told that I was going to be his protector or anything? \u2018No!\u2019 I don\u2019t know but I feel like I played that role nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he did, especially on the Saturday before on the Sunday, moving into the spotlight. When many others were faltering that day and the USA comeback caught momentum, it came to his putt on the 18th in a match with Henley which statistically was the best of all the 11 singles encounters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019d have told me [on the Thursday before the match], I was going to have a six or seven footer to retain the Ryder Cup in one of the last matches out on Sunday, I probably would have gotten a car and went to JFK, went home. I was like, honestly, I was like, not wanting that at all,\u201d said Lowry, adding: \u201cBut I look back on it, and I\u2019m like, that was one of the best things I\u2019ve ever done You know what I mean? You have to live the pressure to enjoy it afterwards. But as it\u2019s all happening, it\u2019s absolutely miserable, it\u2019s horrible!\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowry will start his season\u2019s work for 2026 on the DP World Tour with back-to-back tournaments in Dubai before heading back to the PGA Tour as he will be aiming for another win to add to his CV.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just need to keep knocking on the door. I need to keep building that consistency. I\u2019ve got some goals where I really would like to win again. I want to contend in the Majors. Obviously, you\u2019re not going to have everything, but the one thing I can do is focus on what I do day to day. And that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing. I think I\u2019ve been doing it very well over the last while,\u201d said Lowry.<\/p>\n

And, down the tracks, there is that upcoming Ryder Cup at Adare Manor in 2027. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, because, if you were to sit down and say to me here now, you\u2019re going be a part of a winning Ryder Cup team in Adare Manor, I\u2019d be like, I genuinely don\u2019t care what I do for next two years. I definitely don\u2019t want to be driving buggies in Adare. So, that\u2019s, that\u2019s my number one [priority]. I know there\u2019s a chance I\u2019ll be there in some capacity, but I want to be playing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Far from the madding crowd, quite literally. Shane Lowry is on home turf \u2013 sitting in the snug…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,1394,10916,1395,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-188951","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-ryder-cup","12":"tag-shane-lowry","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}