The Open 2019 breakdown: How Shane Lowry conquered Royal Portrush and left the field trailing

Shane Lowry had missed the last four Open Championship cuts, not breaking 70 in eight attempts, prior to his dominant six-shot victory at Royal Portrush - the first major championship of his career.

Having skipped the Scottish Open and finished T-35 at the Irish Open a fortnight ago, Lowry's form offered little sign that he would trouble the Claret Jug engraver.

So how did he turn the 148th Open Championship into a procession? In the decade since he won the Irish Open as an amateur in driving rain at Baltray, Lowry has been a difficult player to categorise.

Lowry's A-game has long been considered good enough to trouble the world's best fields, as victories in Abu Dhabi this season and the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone in 2015 attest.

The Irishman certainly has no trouble handling the pressure of being in contention, but finding the consistency to put himself there more frequently has been the problem. Lowry's seasons tending to follow a pattern of sharp peaks and long troughs - the biggest slump coming after his 2016 US Open disappointment.

Technique and temperament might explain this boom and bust cycle. Like a batsman who relies on timing, Lowry has a slightly old-school, syrupy swing based on rhythm and the feel in his wonderfully soft hands.

These are fantastic attributes with the short clubs but can lead to inaccuracy with the longer ones, especially driver. When Lowry's timing is on it looks glorious, but any loss of rhythm can lead to the club face pointing in unwanted directions.

It all came together at Portrush, so how exactly did he manage it?

Fast starts with the wind behind him

Lowry finished the week as the only player in the field at double figures under-par at -15. It was on Royal Portrush's opening stretch that Lowry accrued credit in the bank: he was nine-under for the first five holes across the championship. Statistically, three of those holes featured in the five easiest for the week.

As ever with links golf, the elements decided which holes were scoreable and which had players hanging on for dear life. According to Portrush specialist Darren Clarke, the players were presented with an unusual wind direction on the first three days with the first five holes playing downwind and from the right. This allowed players to hit an iron off the first tee, brought the par-five second well within range and made the par-four fifth driveable.

Lowry took full advantage, making three twos on the par-three third and birdieing the fifth in all four rounds. This also negated the need to take risks on the harder holes to come - a theme of the week was that once players fell over par it was difficult for them to make shots up, but Lowry never had to chase.

Despite this barrage of red numbers, arguably his most important putt on the opening section of the course was the 10-footer he holed for bogey on the first on Sunday. The wind had turned into the players for the final round, with Jon Rahm and Rickie Fowler both making double bogey sixes on the first. Lowry salvaged a five, Tommy Fleetwood missed a presentable birdie chance and his lead stayed at three when it could easily have been one.

Playing iron shots from the rough

Lowry's short game is masterful, his chipping and pitching technique the facet of his game that draws most admiration from other pros. His short game explains why he has excelled at courses with small greens, such as Harbour Town and Valderrama, when greens in regulation numbers are low across the field.

You do not associate Lowry with relentlessly finding fairways and greens in the manner of a Francesco Molinari or a Colin Montgomerie, but he found more greens in regulation that any player at Portrush. Lowry found a stunning 79.17 percent of greens - for context, his previous best GIR number on the PGA Tour this season was 66.67 percent - and this on a links course with humps and bumps that repel balls wickedly.

Those numbers suggest a ball-striking exhibition from Lowry, and the fact he was four-under on the par-threes for the week hammers home just how good his iron-play was. More interestingly however, Lowry achieved his field-best GIR numbers while only finding 62.5 percent of the fairways, the 49th best driving accuracy in the field.

Given that going for the green from Portrush's pot bunkers is rarely a realistic option, Lowry hit some magnificent recovery shots from rough to account for the disparity between fairways and greens found. Was he fortunate with some lies or receive handy assistance from the partisan home crowd?

Perhaps, but Lowry demonstrated immense skill in escaping from Portrush's tangly long grass. Many a player comes unstuck by trying to bite off more than they can chew from the thick stuff, but Lowry took extra club and played his approaches from rough like long pitch and run shots. There was no finer example than his shot into the 10th on Saturday on his way to a 63, and he took charge of the tournament after the resulting birdie.

Holing out to avoid frittering shots away

Fleetwood, Lee Westwood and Brook Koepka will look back with regret at a cold putter in the final round at Royal Portrush, and while Lowry did not need to putt the lights out he excelled at holing out from short-range and avoiding three putts. Dropped shots were certain as the wind gusted and the rain lashed down on Sunday at Portrush, but Lowry did not throw any cheap shots away through losses of nerves or concentration on the greens. It was quite the contrast to the final round of the 2016 US Open, when Lowry's hopes faded with three consecutive three-putts at the Oakmont's 14th, 15th and 16th. Bar a three-putt at the 11th, Lowry's pace was spot on.

Winning golf tournaments involves a fairly simple equation: combining greens in regulation with putts holed, and Lowry found the perfect formula at Portrush. Though his velvety touch around the greens was in evidence throughout the week, Lowry's Open was founded on well-flighted, crafty approach play.