Shane Lowry on Portrush mural and reaction to him enjoying celebrations of 2019 Open win

If anyone is in doubt who won The Claret Jug here last time out then the approach to Royal Portrush will remind them.

A house-sized mural of Shane Lowry will greet many visitors to these parts this week on Causeway Street as Ireland hosts The Open again at the course where the Offaly man lifted The Claret Jug in 2019.

Lowry’s face and the famous trophy adorn the gable-end of the property but the modest man himself is glad he is arriving at the course on a different road.

“I'm happy I have to drive the other way,” he said with a grin. “I don't have to drive past it every day.”

Murals immortalise sports stars and back in 2019 Lowry joined the pantheon of golfing greats to become a Major winner. It was a special moment at a course he will have played so often during his rise. Yet he insists it never changed him.

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“I think the thing is you very rarely sit back and think that, like - obviously I know when I won here in 2019, it was, like, very, very special,” Lowry said.

“It was an amazing day for the country and me and my family and everyone around me. But I don't think it actually changed me much as a person. I didn't sit back and think, like you say, all these people tweeting me.

“I didn't sit back and scroll through all the tweets, or when my mural was put on the wall, I didn't think I've immortalised myself. Honestly, I'm just myself. Day-to-day, like I'm just myself. I just happen to be okay at golf and lucky enough that I got to achieve some pretty cool things.”

The mural of the world No 18 was painted a year ago as a countdown to this week and the sport’s showpiece event returning to this part of Northern Ireland.

“It's very special,” Lowry said. “I remember when they asked us about this. It was obviously over a year ago now or a good while ago. I didn't know what to make of it at the start, and then when they did it.

“Then people kept sending me pictures. Everyone keeps sending me pictures. Everyone that comes up here sends me pictures standing beside it.

“Some of them I can't say what they were doing in it, but it is very special. I've done something special in my life.”

The success sparked week-long celebrations in Ireland which, now irritatingly to him, had led to the misconception that guzzling booze is as important to the Irishman as playing well on the course.

“I celebrated pretty well,” Lowry added. “Golf is a funny game like where you lose a lot more than you win, and I've always been a firm believer that when you win, you need to try and celebrate those victories.

“You can't be at the top level of any sport if you're not applying yourself well, and I feel like I do it.”