Shane Lowry stormed to a record 11-shot victory at the Amgen Irish Open, the home crowd favourite shooting a seven-under 63 on Sunday to finish a staggering 23 under par. It's Lowry's seventh title of his career, and his second success at the Irish Open after his 2009 triumph as a 22-year-old amateur. It's a welcome return to the winner's circle for Lowry after some agonising near-misses earlier this season, when double-bogeying the last to lose the Dubai Invitational by two strokes, and when letting a three-stroke lead with three to play slip at the Cognizant Classic courtesy of two closing doubles.
The result was never in doubt on Sunday at the Trump International Links in Doonbeg, however, as Lowry - holding a four-shot lead overnight - only increased his winning margin with a fine final round. Jacob Skov Olesen, his closest challenger at 12 under, four back, would fall away down the leaderboard with a three-over closing 73, while impressive though Patrick Reed's closing 64 and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen's 63 were, seeing them finish tied second and third respectively, Lowry had already surged clear. Lowry carded eight birdies and just the lone bogey at the ninth, with a couple of stunning 45-footers holed at the par-three seventh and par-four 15th stirring the watching crowd into a frenzy and only surpassed by another birdie holed from distance at 18 to finish things off in some style.
The 39-year-old had taken such a sizeable advantage into Sunday in large part thanks to breaking the course record with a second-round 62 on Friday, Joaquin Niemann took a share of second with Reed on 12 under, with Neergaard-Petersen one back. England's Alex Fitzpatrick was tied-seventh at nine under, a closing 64 from Sergio Garcia had him six under, on the same score as Robert MacIntyre and Matt Wallace, among others. Jon Rahm finished four under and reigning champion Rory McIlroy rounded off a disappointing week with his best round of 67 to end his title defence one under.
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