What sort of particular person is Open chief Shane Lowry? Laurie Canter has the right story.
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TROON, Scotland — In the case of skilled golfers, it may be tough to parse actual from faux.
A lot of the women and men {of professional} golf appear like nice hangs from inside our tv screens, however everyone acts pleasant when there’s a tv digital camera pointed of their face. Understanding somebody’s nature is barely tougher, notably on this age of handlers and social media managers and neatly manicured public photographs. Conversely, there’s nothing that followers search out greater than to grasp the character of their sporting heroes.
Is the golfer earlier than me actually who they are saying they’re — a real, pleasant, boots-to-nuts good dude? Or are they a rigorously cultivated fabrication, the form of one that acts like a beneficiant, well-heeled determine solely to vary his tune right into a transactional, disinterested self-obsessive the second the cameras flip off?
In the case of Open Championship chief Shane Lowry, we are able to reply the above query confidently. Lowry could also be a feisty competitor (lest we overlook his near-fistfight with Joe LaCava off the 18th inexperienced eventually fall’s Ryder Cup), however he’s additionally one in every of golf’s nice teddy bears. He’s not simply one of the crucial beloved gamers on this planet when he’s in between the ropes — he’s additionally one in every of golf’s most beloved figures nicely away from the golf course.
The tales of his kinship and generosity journey nicely past the fairways of the PGA Tour — tales just like the one shared by fellow Open competitor (and present DP World Tour professional/LIV reserve) Laurie Canter on Open Championship Saturday.
“Okay, I’ve acquired a superb Shane Lowry story,” Canter stated Saturday at Royal Troon.
The story, Canter stated, begins together with his rookie yr on the DP World Tour in 2016. Canter was one thing of a shock professional that yr, having superior via DPWT qualifying and onto the large circuit, and his recreation mirrored it. He performed in 17 occasions as a rookie and made simply six cuts, recording prize cash south of $50,000 — or hardly sufficient to cowl his journey bills.
Life on the street had introduced him to the Portuguese Masters, the place he was out for dinner at a pizzeria with one other struggling rookie named Gary Hurley. As typically occurs throughout tour weeks, Hurley and Canter weren’t the one professionals having fun with a meal on the pizzeria — additionally within the eating room was Lowry, who neither participant knew past a number of perfunctory phrases all through the season.
“We had been having dinner collectively at a pizzeria,” Canter recalled. “Finish of the meal the invoice got here, and the girl stated, your invoice has been settled by that gentleman over there, and it was Shane. So there you go.”
Canter and Hurley had been gobsmacked.
“I barely knew him, barely had stated a phrase to him at that time,” Canter stated .”I believe he acknowledged a few rookies and he thought, throw these lads a bone. So there you go. I’ve not forgotten that. It was a very nice gesture.”
A pleasant sufficient gesture, evidently, that Canter felt compelled to share it on Saturday on the Open Championship, the identical morning that Lowry entered the match within the last pairing and with the solo, 36-hole lead.
Lowry would possibly very nicely go on to win his second Open this weekend at Royal Troon. A driving rainstorm on Saturday and the blustering winds on Thursday and Friday portend good issues for his chaos-welcoming taking part in model. If he’s within the hunt on Sunday afternoon, although, you’ll be able to make certain that the remainder of the parents at Troon will probably be behind him.
Each outdoors the ropes, and surprisingly, inside them.
