SHANE LOWRY STOPPED trying so hard — and started playing his best golf of the season.
Lowry is back in the Algarve this weekend where he defends his title at the Portugal Masters.
After late bogeys cost him his first win of the season as the Dunhill Links Championship last month, the Clara native is determined to follow up with a repeat performance at the scene of his maiden professional success.
Back on the more familiar surroundings of the European Tour, he says he’s not putting himself under the same pressure as at the start of the season when he was travelling over to the PGA Tour and chasing a place in the world’s top 50.
“I think the start of this year was kind of a prime example of that [pressure],” he said.
“Obviously I’d done well at the Match Play, and got a few invites from there, and was trying so hard to do well and trying so hard to get into the Masters in the Top 50 and all that.
It’s hard not to try hard. I mean, you’re not human if you don’t try hard.
“But even this week, defending champion, I love the place, love the course. It’s hard not to think, God, I think I have a chance of winning this week. But you need just to focus on one round ahead of me.”
Being relaxed suits him.
“I’m just your normal 26‑year‑old guy that happens to be good at golf. I live my life the way I want.
“I’m not obsessed with the game, but you know, golf is my life, you know what I mean, but I have a life outside of golf as well.
Obviously I do what I think I need to do to compete at the highest level, and then after that, I go and hang out with my friends and my girlfriend and stuff like that. That’s just the person I am and that’s way I want to do it.
“I don’t want to lock myself away and practice all day every day; it’s just not me, and I don’t think it would help me either. If I thought it would help me, I would do it, but I don’t think it would.”
