Dubai: Shane Lowry is hoping to keep Ireland’s celebrations going with victory in the DP World Tour Championship on Sunday after his country’s football team qualified to the 2016 Uefa European Championships midweek.
The Republic of Ireland beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 in the second leg of their play-off at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium on Monday to progress to next summer’s finals in France 3-1 on aggregate.
Lowry could add to the fanfare this week with victory in the European Tour’s season-ending event at Jumeirah Golf Estates firing him into contention for the Race to Dubai overall series title, where he is in a battle with six other golfers including Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy.
“I watched the game on Monday and was happy for the lads,” said the 28-year-old from Clara, County Offaly. “I met up with [Ireland manager] Martin O’Neill and [assistant] Roy Keane a couple months ago just before they played Gibraltar and I had a great chat with them for a couple of hours one evening.
“When you know people and you see them doing well, it makes it a whole lot sweeter. It’s great, everyone knows how Irish I am and how much I love my country.
“So, it would be nice to keep the celebrations going this Sunday and that’s my goal for this week, to go out there and win the tournament and hopefully do enough to win the Race to Dubai.
“I know what I need to do this week. I know I need to go and win the tournament. But that’s like any other week for me.
“I just need to go out there on Thursday and Friday and try and put myself in a position going into the weekend. Hopefully I can make it as exciting as I can on Sunday.
“I’m quietly confident that I’m playing well enough, I think if my putter warms up, I can definitely give this a run at the weekend. Fingers crossed that happens.”
