Previously at Portrush

With The 153rd Open approaching, we have been taking a round-by-round look at what happened the last time the Championship was staged at Royal Portrush, in 2019 …

First Round - The Open's glorious return to Antrim coast
Second Round - Big names make headlines on day two in 2019
Third Round - Shane Lowry's sensational Saturday

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So nervous was Shane Lowry on the morning of his coronation at Royal Portrush in 2019 that he couldn’t eat – but by Sunday teatime, the Offaly man was the toast of the Emerald Isle.

A scintillating third-round 63 had awarded Lowry a four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood heading into the final day of The 148th Open, the first to be staged at Portrush in 68 years.

While Lowry was unable to reach the heights of the day before, a controlled round of 72 amid the most intense pressure was enough to secure his place in history.

A stuttering start

Final-round tee times were brought forward by two hours due to the stormy conditions on the Antrim coast; a welcome intervention for a nervous leader.

A four-shot advantage is far from insurmountable, particularly on any final day, and Lowry almost had his wings clipped at the very beginning of the round.

Fleetwood missed an 8ft birdie putt by millimetres while a shaky Lowry needed to sink a 6ft putt just for bogey. The fist pump that came afterwards told its own story.

“That was a very important two minutes in the whole scheme of things,” he said afterwards.

Precision and procession

Lowry steadied the ship over the next two holes before pressing his foot on the accelerator once more with back-to-back birdies at 4 and 5 to put the onus back on his playing partner.

The sunshine that had illuminated Lowry’s magical round just 24 hours earlier had given way to a torrent of rain on the Sunday – and things got even worse as the final pair reached the turn.

In the face of swirling winds and a heavy downpour, the leader opted to play safe at the 9th, hitting an iron off the tee, only for his ball to plunge into the rough, leading to another bogey.

But any hopes Fleetwood may have had of what would have been a simply epic comeback were put to bed when Lowry’s exquisite short game helped him get up-and-down from a bunker to save par at 13.

The Claret Jug was now within touching distance.

'This is it'

The final nails in Fleetwood’s coffin arrived soon after. The Southport native found sand and then greenside rough on his way to a double-bogey at 14. He was now five behind with just four to play.

“Walking onto that green there was a sense of deflation,” he admitted. “The realisation on the 15th tee was ‘yeah, it’s probably too much now’.”

One final exhibit from Lowry’s gallery of short-game splendour – a sublime wedge shot to within 8ft at the 15th – brought with it what was effectively a Championship-clinching birdie.

“I stood over that putt and thought ‘this is it’,” he said.

All that was left was for Lowry to soak up the adulation from his adoring fans from both north and south.

He strode up the 18th fairway 10ft tall, arms outstretched in euphoria.

County Antrim had gained a new giant.

Meanwhile, a closing 71 meant Tony Finau finished in third place, one stroke clear of Lee Westwood and Brooks Koepka, who had – and still has – Portrush native Ricky Elliott as his caddie.

And a final-round 68 secured a top-10 finish for Robert MacIntyre on his major debut.