Shane Lowry runs away with record 11-stroke victory at Amgen Irish Open, Rory McIlroy closes on positive note

DOONBEG, Ireland (AP) — Shane Lowry gave his home crowd and President Donald Trump plenty to cheer about Sunday when he turned a four-shot lead into a runaway at Doonbeg, closing with a 7-under 63 to break the Amgen Irish Open margin of victory record with an 11-shot win.

Lowry opened with four birdies in eight holes, one of them from 45 feet over a ridge at No. 7, and the Irishman poured it on before a delirious gallery at Trump International Ireland.

His final act was holing a 30-foot birdie putt on the 18th green. Lowry began stretching out his arms as the ball was still a few feet from the cup. The way the week had gone, it was the only fitting conclusion.

“This is incredible,” Lowry said, wiping away tears. “I'm so happy.”

He finished on 23-under 257, seven shots better than the previous 72-hole record of 264 by Jon Rahm at Lahinch in 2019. Lowry won by 11 shots over Patrick Reed (64) and first-round leader Joaquin Niemann (67), breaking the Irish Open record by one shot for the largest victory margin. Bernhard Langer held the record of 10 shots at Portmarnock in 1987.

Lowry won the Irish Open for the second time, 17 years after he won as an amateur in 2009. So many great things have happened since then. Lowry won the 2019 The Open Championship at Royal Portrush, and he holed the clinching putt for Europe when it won the Ryder Cup last September.

“I said walking down the last, obviously Portrush was incredible, last year was incredible, and I feel like I can’t better it,” Lowry said. “But look at this.”

It had not been the smoothest year. Lowry had the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in hand at PGA National when he made a mess at the end and tied for second. Lowry did not have another top 10 all year until his blowout performance at Doonbeg.

“He had a big chance earlier this year at the Cognizant. I felt like he never got going with his season after that. Knocked him back a little bit,” Rory McIlroy said after he closed with a 67 to tie for 41st at 1 under. “To see him in contention out there, obviously the whole country would love to see him get it done, me included.”

It was never in question on a cloudy day along the Atlantic Coast, where Trump watched from a box seat while wrapping up his weekend trip to Ireland.

Reed started 10 shots behind and ran off six birdies in 10 holes, but none after that, to tie for second and expand his lead over McIlroy in the Race to Dubai.

Lowry's victory margin was the second-biggest on the DP World Tour this year. Yurav Premlall of South Africa won by 14 shots against the field at the Estrella Damm Catalunya Championship in May.

“I just don't do things half-measures,” Lowry said with a grin. “I can't believe I'm standing here on top of the leaderboard. I said to my caddie — I didn't know how I was doing — I said to him on 14 after I holed that birdie putt, ‘How are we doing? How far ahead are we?’ He said, ‘Far enough.’ So I was happy with that.”