Lowry happy with his game

Shane Lowry says he is happy with his all-round game despite the "minor speed bump" of a missed cut at last week's French Open.

The Offaly golfer has had a mixed 2017, with four missed cuts tempered by four top-20 finishes at the BMW PGA Championships at Wentworth in May, and the Memorial tournament, the Phoenix Open and Pebble Beach on the PGA Tour.

"I suppose I was very optimistic going into last week," Lowry said. 

"To be honest I felt like I was going in the right direction. That is just a minor speed bump.

"I felt like I've played quite good over the past few months and since Augusta [a missed cut at the Masters in April] I've felt like my game turned around a little bit."

Lowry says he feels confident going into this week's Irish Open in Portstewart, a tournament he won as an amateur in 2009.

"I'm still fairly happy where my game is, I went out late Saturday and Sunday evening and played a few holes up in the Castle and my game is still quite good," the 30-year-old continued.

"I’m hitting the ball well and everything feels quite comfortable. Any interviews that I did last week, I did say that I felt I was going to have a good summer, and I still feel that way. I definitely don't feel any different."

Lowry has been working with sports psychologist Gerry Hussey for the past year, after deciding he needed to focus on the mental aspect of his game following his second-placed finish behind Dustin Johnson at the US Open in 2016.

"My patience levels are very good, mentally I'm very good on the course at the minute," he said.

"The last three months I feel have been a lot better, so there's no point talking about the nine months previous because then I'm just going to get myself in a bad frame of mind again."

With five of the world's top 20 competing at Portstewart, and Northern Ireland golfers Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke all in action, Lowry is relishing the opportunity to focus on his own game with the media spotlight concentrated elsewhere.

"I feel I can go up there, do my own thing, come in under the radar a little bit," he said. 

"Try and sneak in there and do alright. Maybe a few years ago I'd be put out by things like that but now I know it’s part of the job and it's what you have to do."

Image: Inpho/Morgan Treacy

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