European captain Luke Donald recently announced his picks for the Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black.
Donald already had six automatic qualifiers on his team: Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Robert MacIntyre, Justin Rose, Tyrrell Hatton, and Rasmus Hojgaard.
He then selected Shane Lowry, Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Sepp Straka to complete his 12-man lineup.
While everyone besides Straka will play at next week’s BMW PGA Championship, McIlroy and Lowry are participating in the Irish Open this week.
Lowry was asked in his press conference before the tournament when he found out he was on the European team for Bethpage Black.
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When Luke Donald told Shane Lowry he had made the European Ryder Cup team
Lowry narrowly missed out on qualification for the Ryder Cup after Hojgaard leapfrogged him at the British Masters two weeks ago.
That meant the Irishman needed Donald to pick him for the team, but he was fairly confident that he would receive the call.
“Probably fully on Sunday,” Lowry revealed when he was told the good news. “Over the last while, he’s kept me in the loop a little bit because I was obviously in the team and out of the team and in the team.
“Yeah, I only fully knew last week on Sunday. It was like an anxious kind of few weeks for me.
“I felt like I didn’t have a great playoffs. I played better as the time went on. I felt like I played really, really good at the Tour Championship, which I thought really helped me, but I also knew what I could add to the team.
“So I was semi-confident about getting the pick, but to actually receive the call and know fully… You can’t expect anything in this game. I was obviously unfortunate enough to miss out by as small a margin as I did over the course of a whole season or even more than that.
“It just goes to show you, no matter what you’re doing throughout the year, whether you’re 50th or 40th on a Sunday, when you go out and play in the tournament and you don’t even want to be there, every shot counts.
“Obviously, I’m very happy. Looking forward to it. It’s going to be a really tough task for us, but I feel like we are ready for that.”
Shane Lowry says whether the Irish Open will be good Ryder Cup preparation
One of the biggest talking points ahead of the Ryder Cup is how well the European team are suited to the golf course at Bethpage Black.
Some might say that it would make more sense for the players to prepare for the event on similar courses in the United States, but Lowry is not concerned.
He thinks that playing at The K Club and Wentworth on the DP World Tour over the next two weeks also has its advantages.
“I think it works well for us Europeans because we get to come to the environment that we’re essentially playing for,” Lowry continued.
“I feel like, when you go play the Ryder Cup, you’re playing for much more than just the 12 lads there or the caddies or the people that are there, I feel like you’re playing for the Tour. You’re playing for a lot of other people on the outside.
So I feel like to put ourselves in that environment over the next two weeks, it kind of shows what it would mean to everyone. You’re getting well wishes off everybody. It’s not even just the Europeans on Tour, it’s the other guys, the Kiwis or the South Africans.
“I think everyone has a want for the European Ryder Cup team to win this Ryder Cup, and I think putting ourselves in that environment… yes, this week particularly is quite busy for me. But once I get to Wentworth next week, it will be fine. I’ll be less busy. I’ll be able to do my own thing and prepare as well as I can for that tournament.
“I still think it’s good preparation for me, but I don’t know about other people, what they would think. I quite enjoy being around the environment of the European Tour and especially with what we’ve got coming up.”
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