Shane Lowry wins the Claret Jug - © The Open via Twitter

The first round of The Open 2018 had just ended. Another missed cut. He hadn't finished in a single top 10 of the year. He had won only once in the past six years and was in danger of losing his PGA Tour card.

He wasn't enjoying himself. Doubts crept in. Stress, pressure - those were once challenges. Now they were just burdens.

“Golf was no longer my friend,” Lowry recalls. “… .I didn't even like playing it anymore. "

Let's go back 12 months earlier. We are now Sunday. Lowry cries again. but this time, he is not alone in a parked car, they are indeed tears of joy.

He had just come off the turn on the 18th hole at Royal Portrush, and there was no doubt now that he was going to win The Open. The marshals in blue vests were beginning to form a line to hold back the crowd which would soon spill over onto the fairway. The crowd chanted "Ole, Ole" and waved Irish flags. Lowry's name was already on the Claret Jug. He was set to become the first Irish golfer to win The Open on his home island - and he was set to do so by six strokes ahead.

It was then that he saw his family in the distance, at the back of the green. His wife Wendy, their daughter Iris, his parents, his team, his friends. “I got a little bloated,” Lowry said. His caddy Bo Martin reminded him that he still had one approach shot to strike. Get over yourself, he told Lowry.

No problem. With his last iron struck, Lowry and Martin kissed. Lowry raised both arms in the air. He wanted to absorb it all, but it was difficult. “It's a surreal experience to go there,” he said. And yet the last 12 months had also been surreal, from where he had been in Carnoustie until now.

“It shows how fickle golf is,” said Lowry, 32, after his last round in the par, which left him 15 under the total. “Golf is a weird sport, and you never know what lies ahead. "

Lowry was a full-time member of the PGA Tour in 2018, thanks to his 2015 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational victory. But that three-year exemption ended after last season, and Lowry didn't play well enough to qualify for the 125-man FedExCup play-offs. He finished 140th on the points list.

Technically, he has not lost his TOUR card, as he retained a limited status at the start of the season. But for some TOUR golfers, not taking part in the FedExCup play-offs is a bit like losing your card, certainly from a totally exempt point of view. So Lowry came home after missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship and looked at himself in the mirror. He focused on the upcoming events of the European Tour.

His friend Graeme McDowell, from Portrush, called it a “wake-up call” for Lowry.

“When you're not playing well you can get knocked out really quickly, especially on the PGA Tour,” McDowell said. “It's very sharp. You play a bad 9 hole, you go home Friday night.

“Europe is not that difficult. The players are strong too but… I think he came back from the United States at the end of last year… and remembered who he was. He came out and won in Abu Dhabi (in January). He was Shane Lowry again.

“I think losing his card in the US last year was the best thing that ever happened to him. It gave him that little kick you need to refocus, re-motivate and get back to where he needed to be. "

Lowry had some help.

On Wednesday he drove to the local Bushmills Inn with his trainer Neil Manchip. They shared a coffee and chatted. Lowry was nervous, anxious, but Manchip boosted his morale and his confidence. The next day, Lowry opened with a 67 (-4) that put him back on the wheels.

Meanwhile, it was last September that Martin started carrying his bag; Lowry had parted ways with his nine-year-old caddy, Dermot Byrne, after this disappointment at Carnoustie, using his brother Alan in the meantime. Lowry and Martin have known each other for some time, but since they established a working relationship their friendship has grown.

“He brought me a new lease of life,” Lowry said.

On Sunday's final lap, Lowry kept telling Martin how nervous he was, how scared, that he didn't want to spoil this historic opportunity in front of home fans. He wanted to give them what they wanted, but he couldn't help but be a little pessimistic.

After all, self-doubt is not easy to overcome. Even with a four-stroke lead heading into the final, Lowry woke up on Sunday after a restless night's sleep thinking about negative thoughts. “I didn't even know if I was good enough to win a Major this morning,” he said. A bug on the starting hole didn't help.

But Martin stayed in his ear, keeping morale high, reminding him to focus and be positive. There was a key approach at the 4th par-4. As they stood on the fairway, Lowry and Martin continued to look over their shoulders, wondering about the wind. A fan was holding an umbrella with an Irish flag attached to it, which offered a little help. Lowry made a success of his approach to prepare for his first birdie.

Then, at the 7th par-5, a nice chip fresh off the green set up his second birdie. Meanwhile, playing partner Tommy Fleetwood, who had found the bunker with his third strike and had to settle for par. Lowry was now six strokes ahead. We haven't caught up to him.

“He literally controlled the tournament from start of the day until the end,” Fleetwood said. “It's a very, very impressive thing to do. "

Lowry's little game is one of the best in golf, and it served him well on Sunday - especially when bad weather (“Portrush Armageddon,” McDowell named it) kicked in. G-Mac has said that Phil Mickelson is the only golfer whose short game compares to Lowry's.

“I play a lot of practice laps with him and I always laugh because he hits balls in the selvedge and he sits there all day with his lobber,” said Lowry's McDowell. "I'm like, 'What is this guy doing?

“Well, I found out this weekend what he was doing. He's gearing up for when he needs to play a pressurized shot in The Open with a chance to win. "

The luck materialized on Sunday. A week that started with high expectations for another Irish golfer - Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland - but the Claret Jug ended up in the hands of Lowry, the most discreet of the five Irish pros on the board. .

Among those waiting to meet him after the last putt was Padraig Harrington, another Irishman who twice won The Open before Lowry ever met him, but missed the cut this week. Today they are good friends and Lowry enjoys visiting Harrington at his home in Dublin. He always receives a knock when he walks into the kitchen and sees one of Harrington's Claret Jugs on the table.

Now he had a message for his friend as they shared a hug on Sunday.

“I'm going to have one on my kitchen table too. "