Shane Lowry, European golf’s newest star, has turned professional and will make his debut in this week’s European Open at the London Club in Kent.
The 22-year-old stunned the sport on Sunday when, playing his first ever Tour event, he beat eight of the world’s top 50 – Open and US PGA champion Padraig Harrington included – and 21 of the top 100 in lifting the Irish Open.
via BreakingNews.ie
Congratulations to Irish amateur Shane Lowry who won the Irish Open yesterday at Baltray in a dramatic rain-soaked sudden death play-off.
Shane Lowry is just the third amateur to win a European Tour title and joins Spain’s Pablo Martin and New Zealander Danny Lee – both in the last two years and Lee only in February – in the history books as the only amateurs to win a European tour event.
He had never before played a Tour event and when he missed a putt to win from under four feet on the final green the thousands who had stayed on in pouring rain feared the worst. As he did. But after Rock had failed with a nine-footer at the first hole of sudden death and then had stayed alive with a putt of the same distance on the next, Lowry’s par five won him the title.
Lowry now has a tough decision, remain as an amateur and take up his spot on the Walker Cup team (the amateur equivalent to the Ryder Cup) or turn pro and take up his two year exemption on the European Tour.