Shane Lowry: It’s selfish – but I really wanted to hear ‘Open Champion Shane Lowry’ at the first tee

This is going to sound very selfish but when I first heard the Open Championship was cancelled, I was very disappointed.

Everybody was telling me, oh that’s great, you get to keep the trophy for two years. I’m like, yeah, but I’d actually like to do it the right way.

I was looking forward to going to the Irish Open at Mount Juliet next week as the reigning ‘Open Champion’, teeing off in front of a home crowd.

I could just imagine the buzz at the first tee. It would have been awesome.

But that’s just selfishly speaking. I know there’s literally nothing anyone could have done about it because of what’s happening with the Covid-19 pandemic.

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By now, I would normally have been introduced as the reigning Open Champion at the first of the season’s Majors – the US Maters at Augusta in April.

I was looking forward to obviously defending my title at Royal St George’s this year and it kind of feels like I’m missing out on all that now.

Hopefully, all being well after the season re-starts next month with the Charles Schwab Challenge in Texas next month, we will get to play the three re-scheduled US-based Majors this season.

Then I’ll get to hear my name called out as the reigning Open Champion.

And when I do get to play the Irish Open and the Open Championship in 2021, I’m sure it’ll still be a pretty good feeling.

But I have to admit, it was very disappointing when I heard the news at the time.

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