“Lads, just be yourself” - Shane Lowry imparts wisdom to Ryder Cup newcomers

The European Ryder Cup team has veterans like Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, but they also have a lot of rookies. Players like Nicolai Hojgaard have never been part of a Ryder Cup before, and that can be a tough experience for the first time.

Lowry has been here before and is the second oldest player that the Europeans have. He met with the others recently and gave them a bit of advice on how to handle the upcoming tournament via Sky Sports:

"The Ryder Cup is an intimidating week, especially as a rookie... I'm just being myself. I said to the lads yesterday, 'Lads, all you can do when you get to Ryder is just be yourself.' Myself is good enough, and I think I do that anyways... We've got a young team, but we have a lot of experience."

The roster Lowry is a part of consists of:

Rory McIlroy (qualifier)
Jon Rahm (qualifier)
Matt Fitzpatrick (qualifier)
Viktor Hovland (qualifier)
Tyrrell Hatton (qualifier)
Robert MacIntyre (qualifier)
Tommy Fleetwood (selection)
Sepp Straka (selection)
Justin Rose (selection)
Shane Lowry (selection)
Nicolai Hojaard (selection)
Ludvig Aberg (selection)

There is a mix of experience and youth, but the youth have largely not been a part of this competition at all. It will be an interesting experience for the Europeans.

Shane Lowry claps back at criticism

The decision to pick Shane Lowry for the Ryder Cup over Adrian Meronk or Yannik Paul has been met with criticism. Many have called out the pick and believe it could be a mistake.

Lowry has heard the chatter and has responded via Golf Digest:

“I know there was a little bit about that last week. I need to be careful here. It didn't sit very well with me, to be honest. Yes, my results have not been amazing this year. But I feel if you purely go down to statistics and go down to the 12 best players in Europe, I’m one of them. I feel like I deserve my place on the team."

He continued:

“I didn't feel like I had to go out and prove anything to anyone last week. The Irish Open is important to me and a tournament I wanted to play well in. If I shut a few people up, so be it, but I wasn't trying to do that last week. I wasn't trying to finish third last week. I was trying to win last week. So last week was disappointing for me. This week is the same. I'm trying to win the tournament here this week. I know I deserve to be on that team, and I know I'll be good in Rome in a couple of weeks. I’m very excited for it.”

Shane Lowry believes he belongs on the European side for the Ryder Cup, alongside Jon Rahm, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland and the rest of the crew. It remains to be seen who he'll be paired with or how he will play at the end of the month.