Shane Lowry has won a Major and holed the retaining putt at a Ryder Cup but he insists that does not dim his desire to win every time he tees it up on the DP World Tour.
Lowry arrives at this week’s Hero Dubai Desert Classic already a two-time Rolex Series winner but his victory at the BMW PGA Championship in 2022 was his last worldwide individual triumph.
He had a golden chance to end that mini drought at last week’s Dubai Invitational but a double-bogey on the last saw him finish two shots behind eventual winner Nacho Elvira.
And while the Irishman admits that is still stinging as he moves across the Emirate to the Majlis Course, he is happy to have the chance to bounce back at one of the DP World Tour’s most storied events for the first time since 2023.
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“I think what the DP World Tour is all about is a lot of history,” he said. “Obviously this event is not like a hundred years old but there's a lot of history to it. Since 1989, you look at the winners, it's one of the great places to come.
“The trophy is iconic, and you want to put your name on that trophy. I think that's what the DP World Tour is about. It's a lot about history and a lot about great events around the world. I think this is certainly one of the great events on any tour that we play.
“Like it is one of the events that you would love to have on your mantelpiece.
“Dubai has always been a great place to come and play; the end of the year, it's always nice to get here.
“It's nice to come over here. I feel like it's a really nice start to the year, especially with the two events back-to-back and then even like I haven't been here in three years. To see this event grow, and even the build-out around the course, the magnitude of the event and the buzz around the place from even Monday yesterday is pretty cool.”
Lowry’s tie for third last week follows a 2025 where he endured near-misses at both the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and the Truist Championship, taking his tally of individual runner-up finishes to 12, twice the number of his wins.
But the 38-year-old knows that watching others lift trophies is all part of the game and is hopeful he can learn more in defeat than glory.
“So that's the funny thing about golf,” he said. “I've probably played close to 400 tournaments in my career, and I've only won seven. You lose a lot more than you win. So you get used to losing as a professional golfer.
“Yes, there's certain weeks where you finish fifth and you're happy, or third and you're happy, but more often than not, you leave a tournament on the Sunday evening and you're not happy with yourself.
“You get used to it and you learn to deal with it and move on and look at the future.”
Of last week’s disappointment, he added: “I'll be honest, like I went and packed up my stuff at the hotel, and I got in my car and I came over to the hotel for this tournament. I felt like sitting in my room for the evening on Sunday evening but I went and met some friends for dinner.
“Kind of tried to have as good a time as I could, but you kind of go to bed that night and you wake up thinking, what if, you know, what could I have done differently? Even yesterday was a bit of a slow day for me. I came out here and hit some balls and played nine holes.
“Yeah, just trying to get it out of my system really. But I feel good today. I think speaking to people closest to me over the last day or so, like you can only take positives from it, really. I played great last week, haven't played in a while. First tournament of the year. It's nice to get the year off to a great start and hopefully it's a sign of things to come for the rest of the year.
“I think you can't be stupid and say, ‘Oh, let's just forget about last week and move on’. I think you have to kind of look at what you learned from it.
"I've been on tour a long time now, and I feel like you're always learning week-to-week, day-to-day, and like last week is no different. The great thing about golf is like even if I won last week, you're still here as another player this week, and you're still here teeing it up on Thursday and you're wanting to play well. No matter what went behind you, it doesn't change anything going forward.
“So yeah, I think just a lot of open and honest conversations with my coaches, my team and myself and my caddie, what we did wrong, what can we do better. You know, there certainly is a few things. It wasn't just the last hole last week. There was a few instances during the week. Like I probably had a few too many three-putts last week. I had a few times where I probably dropped silly shots.
“So it wasn't just the last hole last week that let me down. It was a few things along the way. But I felt like I played some great golf and I think you need to look at that and look at the positives and bring them forward.
“There's plenty of players that played last week that are over on the range now trying to find their game but they didn't feel as bad as I did leaving Dubai Creek Sunday evening.”
