Shane Lowry surged to the top of the leaderboard at the Honda Classic yesterday at the PGA National in Florida with a round of 65, but his thoughts were back in Offaly.
On Thursday, Lowry's uncle Jimmy passed away, aged 66. Jimmy Lowry was brothers with Shane's father Brendan and though he might have lacked the footballing talents of his All-Ireland winning brothers, Jimmy was a huge presence in Offaly GAA, especially in his own club of Ferbane.
The Offaly club paid a beautiful tribute to Jimmy on social media this weekend.
Jimmy Lowry took justifiable pride in bearing a surname that is synonymous with the GAA in Ferbane, Offaly and far further afield. While the immense on-field contribution of his illustrious footballing brothers may have overshadowed Jimmy’s service to Gaelic Games, his own impact stands tall against any measurement
Since he heard the news, Lowry has been wearing a green and white ribbon on his baseball cap, the same colours of Ferbane GAA. (you can see it on his hat in this clip )
Luck of the Irish 🍀@ShaneLowryGolf makes birdie the hard way and moves to T3 @TheHondaClassic. pic.twitter.com/0cr2Q8sqnc
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 25, 2023
Shane Lowry pays tribute to his uncle Jimmy
After his round yesterday, Lowry spoke of his uncle's passing and said he considered flying back to Offaly for the funeral instead of playing the tournament he nearly won last year.
My uncle sadly passed away on Thursday morning. Yeah, my dad's brother, unexpected. It's very sad week for our family. To be honest, I wanted to go home on Thursday when I heard the news. A lot of people talked me out of it.
I'm here now. I'm trying to play for him and play for his wife and his kids and my cousins and my uncles and my aunts and everyone at home because we're a very close family and very proud of our name and very proud of where we come from. Green and white is just where he's from, that's Ferbane in Offaly, in Ireland, and said I'd wear it. Yeah, hopefully I can go out and make him proud tomorrow. Everyone keeps telling me how proud he was of me over the last number of years, and hopefully I can do him another day proud tomorrow.
He's two years older than my dad, so he's 66. He's just a great man. He loved working. He loved hard work. He loved hardship. He was big into Gaelic games at home. He didn't necessarily play at the highest level, but he was very involved and loved in the community, and he was just a great man. He was great craic, and I loved him.
It must be a hugely challenging weekend for Lowry, who spoke before the tournament at his delight of having his wife and children at the tournament to support him.
It's a very sad day for our family. Yeah, it's just quite sad, and it's quite hard. It's been a difficult week. It's been very difficult not to be there at home for my dad because my dad is a big softy and he'll take this quite hard. But I'll see him in a couple of weeks when he comes out here
Lowry is tied for fourth place in the tournament after his round of 65 and will tee off at 6.25pm today, four strokes off the lead.
