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The 2025 Open Championship returned to Royal Portrush just six years after Shane Lowry won in 2019. That was the first Open back in Northern Ireland since the 1950s, and there have never been any in the Republic of Ireland. So, Lowry, who is from Ireland, taking home the Claret Jug was a big deal. He pulled into town for this year's Open Championship, and he saw a mural of his face on the side of a building. After a bad shot on Friday, that goodwill may have gone out the window.
You give a guy a mural and he still doesn’t like the place 😂 pic.twitter.com/miJndMKH3J
— Andy Johnson (@AndyTFE) July 18, 2025
Lowry smoked his drive on the difficult 11th hole to the left, which immediately made him scream, “No! Don't go left!” Okay, fair enough. That was followed by a prompt, “F*** off.” And then, as Andy Johnson from The Fried Egg said on X, it appears that Lowry says “F*** this place.”
If anyone else in the field, save for Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy, said this, it would be fair. Royal Portrush has played tough on Friday, especially in a driving rainstorm. But for Lowry, who is a hero in Portrush for his 2019 win, to say “F*** this place” doesn't pass the smell test.
Lowry finished the 11th hole with a bogey, dropping to even par for the round and one under for the tournament. The hole has been tough all week long, just ask Jon Rahm, so the dropped shot should not cost him much. With the cut line projected at two over par, the Irishman should make the weekend.
Lowry has a history of losing his temper on the course. He was incensed at last year's Open Championship as he played through a rainstorm at Royal Troon. That cost him a chance at his second Claret Jug in 2024. Can he cool off and find his groove again at Royal Portrush?
