A look back on the weekend of sport

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The Claire Byrne Show 10 min 3 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 1 day ago

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What is the weekend’s headline sport event and why does it matter?

Claire Byrne 0:01

The Claire Byrne Show on News Talk. With Aviva Insurance.

Clare Byrne 0:09

Now I'm joined by Off the Ball's Owen Shayen in the studio to talk about sport and where else can we start other than the Irish Open? It was Shane's from the beginning, pretty much. Pretty

Paul Lambert 0:20

much. Yeah, there was also a a golf competition happening down there at the weekend. Uh and you're right, Shane's from the beginning, and there was really no doubt, may maybe a little inkling yesterday, you start to catastrophise because of what you've seen from Shane Lowry earlier this year that something disastrous might happen on the course in a sporting context, obviously, for him yesterday, but it just w was never going to happen given the lead that he had built up. He's had a very tough year. He had a couple of really disappointing decisions. Defeats earlier in the year, he changed his caddy back in June, and he just seemed a lot happier. He seemed to have really got over uh all those issues that he had earlier in the year coming to Doombeg this week, and it all just came together perfectly for him.

Paul Lambert 0:57

I I think for Shane Larry, he's somebody who loves his home country, he he loves being Irish, and I think for him to come back with a win at the Irish Open was almost the perfect comeback win for him. I I think it's right up there with winning. At a major almost for him in the context of 2026. Yeah. So it's been a long old road for him, four years without an individual win. Now, I that that statistic does do him a little bit of a disservice because it was himself and Rory who have won as a pair since then. And obviously he had to have huge courage to win the Ryder Cup for Europe last year as well. So so he has had big moments, but it was still a fact that he hadn't won as an individual in nearly four years.

Paul Lambert 1:35

years so to show up and to completely blitz the field uh is astonishing.

How did Shane Lowry overcome a tough season to win the Irish Open?

Clare Byrne 1:39

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned courage, 'cause I was thinking about him yesterday when it was on all day, all weekend in our house. And, you know, that pressure he was under with the US president there, the Tae Shak there, all of those dignitaries it's just really it was hardcore, you know, but he seemed to to thrive on it.

Paul Lambert 1:55

Yeah, a hundred percent. Like you sometimes see some golfers and you saw this throughout the weekend, like brilliant coverage in terms of what the European tour actually gets to the golfers, but some of them seem perturbed by a reporter walking down the fairway with them. Yeah. Like Shane Larry had that times a million when you've got the president of the United States waiting there to to shake your hand on the first T and he's got to navigate that. But I guess Larry, in fairness to him, he he's been in these circles. He knows how to navigate that. He is a major Major winner, he understands the pageantry that comes with big golf tournaments. And he has been playing in some of these big golf tournaments where Trump has has been around, like the the the the last Ryder Cup of the United States just last year, would be a good example of that.

Paul Lambert 2:34

And I I I think he just kind of knows how to handle that. I think it's when his own game starts to desert him. That's maybe when when Lowry starts to suffer, and he just couldn't put together seventy-two holes of consistency early. year in the year, got himself into some very commanding positions and just couldn't see it out. And he said he went to a dark place after that earlier this year. And uh on one level that that's kind of heartbreaking. Then on a on a sweeter level he was just talking about his daughter saying, When are you going to bring home a a trophy? Because like four years in her life is a is a hell of a long time. Yeah. So she potentially doesn't even remember the last time or or remember the the Clara Chug.

Clare Byrne 3:06

And then he even found the time to get the tariffs off the whiskey as well. 'Cause it was Shane who did it, according to Trump.

Paul Lambert 3:12

It's i it's surely one of the most absurd sporting weekends we've ever had in this country. Uh

Clare Byrne 3:17

bananas in pajamas, like just mad stuff.

Paul Lambert 3:19

There was a great detail in The Independent today, Connor McKeon writing that word on the course, not confirmed but word on the course, was that Eric Trump had started to advise the DP World Tour on where to put their pins come the weekend because Shane Lowry was tearing up the course to such an extent that it would look bad on Trump Dune Beg.