Tranlate this title Shane Lowry reveals emotional message to caddie before winning Irish Open in spanish

Shane Lowry finally had a Sunday to fully enjoy after a difficult period in which several good opportunities ended with disappointment.

The Irishman won the Irish Open at Doonbeg by 11 shots, finishing at 23-under after a final-round 63. It was a record winning margin for the tournament and also Lowry’s second Irish Open title, 17 years after he won the event as an amateur.

Lowry already had a big advantage before the final hole, so there was no real pressure about whether he would win. Instead, the walk down the 18th fairway gave him time to think about the person beside him.

Dermot Byrne returned to Lowry’s bag earlier this year. Byrne had previously spent around the first decade of Lowry’s professional career with him before they separated.

The 2019 Open Championship winner explained after his Irish Open victory that he made sure Byrne knew how happy he was to share the moment with him.

“It’s been great. I’ve been lucky. All my caddies have been great; great people to be around, and they have been great servants to me. Dermot did pretty much the first ten years of my career with me,” Lowry said.

“And I always remember, like Bo was amazing and to win The Open at Portrush with Bo, and I always remember that wasn’t long after we finished and I always remember feeling bad for Dermo about that he didn’t get to do that. I said to him walking up 18, I couldn’t be happier walking up the 18th fairway today with anyone other than him.”

Lowry delighted to have Byrne back

Lowry and Byrne reunited in June when the Irish golfer needed a caddie ahead of the Travelers Championship. At that time, Lowry stressed that he did not know what the long-term plan would be.

A few months later, the pair were walking towards an Irish Open trophy together.

“Darren has been great the last few years. We had some great times. Bethpage last year was incredible. He’s a great caddie and great person, as well. I’m going to get to catch up with him at Wentworth, as well. He lives near there. So that will be good,” Lowry said.

“But it’s unbelievable to have Dermo back. He’s been so positive and such a breath of fresh air for me when I needed it most.

“You know, I think I needed a change. It was nice to have a bit of familiarity, as well, and not have to go to a different caddie to teach or to learn what you need and what you want.

“So yeah, but that was unreal. It was great to have him out there today.”

Lowry ended the week with rounds of 67, 62, 65 and 63. His second-round 62 was also a course record at Doonbeg.

The experienced golfer had already spoken during the tournament about how much the support from Irish fans helped him. After taking the lead on Friday, he said the crowd could become his “15th club in the bag” if he remained in contention on Sunday.

He did much more than remain in contention.

Lowry started the final round four shots clear and then moved away from everyone behind him. Patrick Reed and Joaquin Niemann eventually shared second place, 11 shots behind the champion.

Lowry admits 2026 had been difficult

The victory also arrived after several difficult moments earlier in the season.

Lowry had chances to win other tournaments but did not finish them in the way he wanted. At the Cognizant Classic, two double bogeys over the final three holes proved very costly.

He also admitted that his Masters Sunday affected him mentally for some time.

“So Dubai was difficult. Cognizant was pretty hard. But I would go back to the Sunday of the Masters was especially difficult for me this year, and I feel like after that, a lot of wind went out of my sails,” Lowry said.

“And then the more you kind of keep trying to play through it, the harder it can get sometimes. So to take a few weeks off and kind of reset was nice.”

Before the Irish Open, Lowry had not won an individual DP World Tour or PGA Tour event since the 2022 BMW PGA Championship.

He stressed that he continued looking at his statistics and believing another opportunity would arrive.

“What do you do? You kind of trust, first of all, I went and looked at my stats. They were pretty good. Not bad. Not amazing but not horrendous. So that kind of gives you a glimmer of hope.

“So, right, I need to keep trying to put myself in position, and that’s probably the only way I’m going to get through it.”

Lowry certainly put himself in position at Doonbeg, and this time there was no late disappointment. He even finished with a long birdie on the 18th before celebrating another Irish Open title in front of the home crowd.