Amateur holds nerve to thrill home crowd

Hopes for a home winner were high when the 3 Irish Open got under way last week, but few would have bet that a 22-year-old amateur by the name of Shane Lowry would be the man proudly flying the tricolor come the end of the tournament at the County Louth club, north of Dublin yesterday.
But that is how things unfolded, Lowry stealing the thunder of his more illustrious countrymen - among them Padraig Harrington, who missed the cut - to win his national championship at the third hole of a sudden-death play-off with Robert Rock, of England.
In his first professional tournament, Lowry became only the third amateur to win an event on the European Tour - the others were Pablo Martin, in 2007, and Danny Lee, this year - and now has to decide whether to turn professional immediately or wait until he has played for Britain and Ireland against the United States in the Walker Cup in September.
Either way, when he decides to join the paid ranks, the Irishman will already have earned himself automatic playing rights on the tour for the next two years and saved himself the agony of a trip to Qualifying School. As he is an amateur, the first prize of about £440,000 found its way into Rock's pockets, rather than his, but the smile plastered to his face suggested that he could not give a jot about the money. If he turns professional straight away, he can play in the BMW Championship, the tour's flagship event, at Wentworth this week. The lure will be incredibly strong.
It would be fair to say that Lowry had put the thousands of followers who swarmed down and over the fairways through the odd moment of agony, but in the end he emerged a worthy champion. He could, and should, have wrapped up victory in regulation play when he had a putt of less than four feet at the 72nd hole, but he got ahead of himself on his walk to the green, raising his arms in acknowledgement of the cheers and the victory he assumed was his.
A little while later he was standing there, bent over and with his head in his hands, shocked that he had missed what, in footballing terms, was a sitter. It opened the door for Rock, who had a birdie putt for victory at the first play-off hole, but missed. The second was “shared” in five and the third was won by Lowry when the Englishman missed a seven-foot putt for par that would have taken them back to the 18th tee for a fourth time.
Among those on hand to congratulate Lowry was Rory McIlroy, who put his arm around him after he had missed the “winning” putt in regulation play and told him, “Hang in there. You are still going to win.” And at the end it was McIlroy who led the celebrations by spraying the victor with champagne and whispering in his ear that it was time to turn pro. “He's got nothing left to prove and will learn much more out here than in the amateur ranks,” he said.
“I feel shock more than anything,” Lowry said. “I got an invitation to play and [being] my first tour event, I would have been happy enough to make the cut. But then I went out and shot 62 [in the second round] on Friday and I thought, 'Right, this is my week. I can win.' I still can't believe it.”
At the start of the final round, Lowry shared the lead with Rock, on 16 under par, two shots ahead of Johan Edfors, their playing partner. He fell two shots behind after dropping a shot at the 11th, but after getting birdies at the 14th and 16th holes, he led by one, only for Rock to draw level with a birdie of his own at the 17th. Both settled for rounds of 71, and 17 under-par totals of 271, before setting off for their shoot-out in torrential rain. But in the end, Rock was denied the chance to rain on the local hero's parade.
“It's absolutely unbelievable what Shane has done,” Rock said. “I'm so happy for him.”
Source:The times