ESKER Hills Golf Club in Co Offaly was thronged with revellers last night as they watched replays of their hero on television and regaled one another with tales of beating or almost beating Shane Lowry at golf.
Yesterday’s winner of the Irish Open – only the third ever amateur winner of a European Tour event – Lowry has become an iconic figure in his home club and county where he has played from the age of 14. The club also boasts Taoiseach Brian Cowen as an honorary member.
Describing Lowry as a hero, club member Colm Waters said he recalled playing the young golfer six years ago. “I beat him on the 17th hole and I have it on the scorecard,” he proudly announced.
Club director Joe Molloy said Lowry spent most of his youth at the club. Every break the young golfer got from school he was playing at the club and “even when there wasn’t a break in school he was out [playing]”, he explained.
He likened Lowry’s nerve-racking victory to the last Offaly All-Ireland hurling win and said many would try to emulate his success. “It will be like the hurling win, instead of swinging hurls they’ll be swinging the golf clubs and thinking ‘we could be Shane’,” Mr Molloy commented.
Lowry has held the course record at Esker Hills since he was 16 and members of the club in Ballinamere have been aware of his potential. Some in his home town of Clara even backed him at 250 to 1 him in local bookmakers to win the Irish Open.
“I’d say there will be a few sore bookies over in Clara,” said Esker Hills trustee Jimmy O’Sullivan.
He said the club had received supporting phonecalls from as far afield as Ghana and Los Angeles. “That’ll tell you the interest in it, it’s incredible.”
Sporting prowess is evident from both sides of Lowry’s family. His father Brendan and uncles Seán and Michael were members of the Offaly football team which stopped Kerry from winning five All-Ireland titles in a row in 1982.
His mother’s side of the family, the Scanlons, are described as “a huge sporting family”.
In White’s Bar in Clara, one of the golfer’s regular haunts, there was talk of little else. Posters were being erected in the windows to announce his homecoming at 10pm.
“It’s absolutely fabulous for the town. We have the Taoiseach in the town who is going through all sorts of torment at the moment,” commented Michael Rickard, who said it was a great boost for Clara and Offaly to have such a positive story. Taoiseach Brian Cowen, who attended yesterday’s event at Baltray in Co Louth, congratulated Lowry on his success, as did President Mary McAleese.
She described his victory as a “dramatic and courageous” and said it would go “down in the annals of Irish sport as a memorable and deserved victory”.
“Shane Lowry has shown tremendous determination and talent in the last four days as he took on and matched some of the best golfers in the world,” she said.
Despite winning, Lowry will have to forego the €500,000 first prize which will instead go to the runner-up, but he may well turn professional this morning.