Drained Shane Lowry keen to take break after post-Ryder Cup low

Like Leona Maguire, who made the Solheim Cup team but wants to challenge for her maiden LPGA Tour win in the $5m (€4.42m) CME Globe Tour Championship in Florida, Lowry needs a break after a gruelling year.

“Oh, I can’t wait to get home,” said the Offaly ace, who missed the cut in his last two PGA Tour starts but admits he should have taken time off.

“Since the Ryder Cup, I’ve been running on the smell of an oily rag. The whole year, and for the two years since I won The Open, I’ve been spending my time trying to make the Ryder Cup team. I achieved that goal but just felt like I left everything there.

“We’ve had six Majors in some ten months, the Olympics, the Ryder Cup and it’s made for a tough and demanding year.

“I’ve been struggling for motivation. I’ve been struggling out on the golf course. I’ve not been playing bad golf, but mentally I’ve not been there. It’s amazing that your performance can really suffer from that.”

He found Whistling Straits so exhausting he’s unsurprised Jon Rahm is not in Dubai this week.

“I didn’t really understand what it was like or how you would feel post the Ryder Cup, but I spoke to ‘Westy’ (Lee Westwood) last week and he took six weeks off after it,” Lowry said. “I know the Ryder Cup is only three days’ golf, but it builds up so much in your head and when the competition begins, you just give it your everything, and once it’s all over, it’s such a low. From being on such a high, it’s all such a comedown.

Unsurprised by Rahm’s withdrawal from Dubai – “you do feel mentally and physically drained” – he added: “I gave it my all the last weeks out on the PGA Tour, but I was just wasn’t there mentally or physically.”

Like 20th-ranked Rory McIlroy, 18th-ranked Lowry can’t win the Race to Dubai, with leader Collin Morikawa, awarded honorary life membership of the European Tour, favourite to become the first American winner. So long as Billy Horschel finishes worse than a two-way tie for eighth and Tyrrell Hatton, Min Woo Lee, Matt Fitzpatrick or Paul Casey don’t win, that will be the case.

As for Maguire, she tees it up in the CME Group Tour Championship, treating the week as a bonus.

“It’s great to be at the last event, which is only for the top 60 players,” said 17th-ranked Maguire, who slipped to 28th in last week’s Pelican Championship after opening with a blistering 62.

“A goal at the start of the year was to make it to this event, so I want to finish off as strong as I possibly can.

“I played some great golf last week and then not so great in the last round. But that’s golf. These things happen.

“I am just treating this as a bonus week. The goal at the start of the year was to finish top 40 on the CME Globe Points list, so I am way inside that.

“So, whatever happens, this week will be a bonus.”

DP World Tour Championship

Live, Sky Sports, 6.0am

CME Group Tour Championship

Live, Sky Sports, 8.0pm