'I want Shane Lowry to lead out my Ryder Cup team', says Europe captain Padraig Harrington

If Shane Lowry is in any doubt about his new status as not just an Open champion but also a feared major finisher with ice in his veins then Padraig Harrington’s declaration will put him right. “I want Shane to lead out my Ryder Cup team,” the Europe captain said.

Lowry, 32, was back in Dublin on Monday following his six-shot win at Royal Portrush. His nerveless heroics on the windswept Co Antrim links did not bear the hallmarks of a normal first-time major winner and Harrington clearly believes there is much more to come.

A close friend of Lowry, who has acted almost like a mentor in the past few years, Harrington is adamant this is no one-off and that the player who would be a Ryder Cup rookie has what it takes to succeed in the most intense slot of golf’s most intense arena as Europe try to win on American soil for just the third time in 21 years.

“Do I want Shane leading my team out next year?” Harrington said. “Yes, definitely. It is likely to be windy, tough conditions [at Whistling Straits] and Shane is a strong player and obviously can handle the pressure. This was as good as it gets in golf. You shouldn’t think of this as a stepping stone – you should think of this as where he is. I don’t think too many players would relish playing against him, whether it’s in the final rounds of a major, a Ryder Cup or anything.”

Portrush is not the only evidence of Lowry’s competitive quality. Harrington also points to his victories in the Irish Open as a raw 22-year-old amateur in 2009 and at the World Golf Championship Bridgestone Invitational in 2015, where he destroyed a world-class field for what, before Sunday’s £1.6 million windfall, was his biggest cheque of £1 million.

“Shane’s wins have always come on big occasions,” Harrington said. “He’s a big-time player. When he gets up there he has the belief and confidence. He is actually made for the Ryder Cup.”

Darren Clarke strongly considered Lowry for a wild-card pick for the 2016 Ryder Cup, but, by then, he had already started his slump after painfully blowing a four-shot lead in the final round of that year’s US Open. As he fell out of the world’s top 90, Lowry was not even in the shake-up for last year’s match in Paris, despite Clarke’s successor, Thomas Bjorn, being one of his biggest admirers.  “Shane has such heart and such a brilliant matchplay game that I was desperate to have him in the team, but his results just had not been good enough,” Bjorn said. “What an asset he will now be to Europe.”

One player who knows all about Lowry’s matchplay prowess is Rory McIlroy, who partnered him in the Irish amateur team. After missing the cut at Royal Portrush, the world No 3 is back home in Florida, but posted a social media picture of himself and Lowry together when they were teenagers. “Even though last week wasn’t the week I had envisaged for myself, I couldn’t be happier and more proud of @shanelowrygolf,” McIlroy wrote. “How he handled everything over the weekend... emotions, nerves and conditions tells you everything I’ve gotten to know about him over the past 15 years.”

Jack Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner, joined in the tributes, as did others outside golf, including Sir Tony McCoy and the Irish president Michael D Higgins.

Graeme McDowell, another of Ireland’s five major winners in the past 11 years, explained why staying at 17th in the world rankings should be the least of Lowry’s ambitions. “Shane has been playing in Rory’s shadow a bit,” McDowell said. “Shane can create his own shadows now. Pete Cowen [the renowned coach] tells a story of when he went to check out the Irish amateur squad and being asked ‘what do you think of young Rory?’ ‘Yeah, he’s a superstar,’ Pete replied, ‘but you’ve got another one there, the slightly overweight kid with the glasses on’. That was Shane.

“He’s a phenomenal driver of the ball and might be the best chipper I’ve ever seen.” Amid this excitement and high praise came a note of caution from Danny Willett. Lowry has chosen to skip this week’s World Golf Championship in Memphis and, with the festivities still raging in Dublin, that is undoubtedly wise. However, Lowry is due to return to the PGA Tour in two weeks’ time and play the three FedEx play-off events.

While Willett would never dissuade anyone from aiming for the $15 million (£12 million) bonus the FedEx winner will pick up in Atlanta, he did have advice for Lowry.

Willett won the Masters in 2016, was tipped for huge things and then spiralled to 342nd in the world, before a revival in which he finished in a tie for sixth on Sunday. “My advice to Shane would be to take some time off,” Willett said.

“Spend it with your family and friends, enjoy what you accomplished. It doesn’t happen very often. It’s very easy to get pulled in different directions and sent around the world. Be a little bit selfish and do what’s right for you. I played too much golf when I didn’t really fancy it. If I could go back, I’d do it differently.”