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This Day In Sports…July 21, 2019:
The first Open Championship to be played in Northern Ireland in 68 years has a storybook four-day run. With an Irish flag on his shoes, countryman Shane Lowry won his first major by six strokes over Tommy Fleetwood at Royal Portrush in County Antrim. The gallery soaked it all in, as Lowry became only the second golfer from the Republic of Ireland—as opposed to Northern Ireland—ever to win a major, joining Padraig Harrington and his two Open Championship and one PGA Championship titles.
“It’s just incredible to be sitting here with a trophy in front of me,” Lowry said after his victory per the Open Championship website. “Look at the names on it. I couldn’t believe that it was me. I couldn’t believe it was happening.” One reason was that he had missed his last four Open Championship cuts. But Lowry set the table this time with a terrific bogey-free eight-under 63 in the third round, setting the course record on the redesigned Portrush layout.
Lowry had flown under the radar in the build-up to the 148th Open as Northern Ireland’s Darren Clarke, Graeme McDowell and Rory McIlroy attracted all the attention. McIlroy, indeed a true Northern Irishman, was the pre-tournament favorite but shot an 8-over 79 in the first round. The nightmare included a quadruple-bogey eight on the first hole, a double-bogey five on the 16th, and a triple-bogey seven on the 18th. McIlroy rebounded with a sizzling six-under 65 in the second round, but it wasn’t enough. He missed the cut by one stroke.
McIlroy was the gallery favorite over the weekend as the Open Championship returned to Royal Portrush, and he was in the hunt in the final round Sunday. But that’s a relative term, as the world’s best golfer, Scottie Scheffler, was in control of the tournament. Scheffler won the Claret Jug by four strokes over American Harris English. “(Scheffler) is the bar that we’re all trying to get to,” said McIlroy, who won the Masters in April. “You could argue that there’s only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run the one that Scottie’s been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive.” Lowry, by the way, tied for 40th on Sunday.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
