- Shane Lowry will have to wait to hear himself announced to fans as the defending Open champion, finding himself not at Royal St George's this week but in Dublin, Ohio.
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Shane Lowry will have to wait to hear himself announced to fans as the defending Open champion, finding himself not at Royal St George’s this week but in Dublin, Ohio.
“I wouldn’t say it’s bittersweet, but it is strange,” Lowry said Wednesday as he prepared to tee it up on the US PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament at Muirfield, Village.
The Open Championship originally scheduled for this week was cancelled in April amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Memorial taking the slot when the US PGA Tour resumed with a revamped schedule after a three-month break.
The cancellation marked the first time since 1945 that the Open Championship’s Claret Jug won’t be awarded.
“I miss being announced on the first tee as defending champion, but I’m sure I’ll get that next year,” Lowry added. “So everything that I miss or that I won’t get to do this week, I’m sure I’ll get to do next year.”
While Lowry will not be gunning for a major title repeat this week, he will be among a stellar field that includes 15-time major champion Tiger Woods – playing his first event since February.
“I don’t really dwell on things too much that happen, so it is what it is right now, and we kind of have to deal with the cards we’re given,” Lowry said.
“We’re certainly not in control of what’s happening in the world at the minute.
“Obviously I’d love to be at St George’s this week defending.
“I’d love if we were playing in front of 40,000 or 50,000 people this week. I’d love, like everybody in the world, if things were back to normal, but they’re not, and we kind of have to get on with that.”
Lowry finished tied for 39th at the Workday Charity Open last week, which was also staged at Muirfield Village.
