The Limerick Summary: 2019 THE OPEN

Winner: Shane Lowry

Around the wider world of golf: Cydney Clanton and Jasmine Suwannapura easily won the inaugural Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational on the LPGA; Patty Tavatanakit made it two in a row with a win at the Danielle Downey Credit Union Classic on the Symetra Tour; Kristoffer Ventura won the Pinnacle Bank Championship on the Korn Ferry Tour; Lorens Chan won the HFX Pro-Am HFX Pro-Am on the Mackenzie Tour; Jim Herman won the Barbasol Championship, the PGA Tour's alternate field event; and Max McGreevy won the weather-shortened Guangzhou Open on the PGA TOUR China.



Another breakthrough week for me. I picked Jon Rahm (T11) to win and Brooks Koepka (T4) to Top10. Both men were in position to make the Top10 on Sunday, but both struggled and Rahm just couldn't recover. Still, it was a good week for my picks!

• Winners: 2 for 29
• Place well (Top10): 13 for 29 (8 Top5 finish, 5 more Top10s)
• Overall Top10s: 24 of 58 (13 Top5s, 11 more Top10s)

Nobody was going to catch Shane Lowry on Sunday. I know that big leads can be -- and often are -- lost under final round pressure, but it was hard to believe it would happen to Shane. Having lost a lead in the US Open just three years back, you could tell from his media appearance Saturday night that he had learned quite a bit from that loss.

Then the weather came in. Shane knows that weather well and he proved it. Few players went under par, and those were too far back to challenge. And once Tommy Fleetwood stumbled to a double-bogey on 14, there wasn't much doubt about who would win. As Shane pointed out, he basically just needed to find his ball on every hole.

He did.

This win isn't really a surprise. Shane has played well in big events over the last few years, and he had won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship earlier this year. The two wins easily move him into the Top5 of my Ruthless Golf World Rankings, as well as elevating his position in pretty much every ranking in golf.

And now he picks up a new Limerick Summary to celebrate his Irish pride. Way to go, Shane!

The contest was over and done
Almost before Lowry’d begun
To play the last round.
The Irish crowd drowned
Shane with cheers while he easily won.

The photo came from this page at belfasttelegraph.co.uk.