2019 Open Championship: How Shane Lowry became a popular winner at Royal Portrush

The Republic of Ireland native harnessed the power of huge support from just across the border to lift the Claret Jug amid jubilant scenes on the 18th green back in 2019.

All the pre-tournament focus was on home favourites Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, but it was Rory’s close friend Lowry who managed to come up trumps as the tournament was held on Northern Irish soil for the first time in 68 years.

Lowry went into the weekend with a share of the lead as back-to-back rounds of 67 saw him top the leaderboard alongside American J.B Holmes.

However, he did all the damage on Saturday as he carded a bogey-free round of 63 – a course record for the new layout at Royal Portrush – to take a four-shot lead into the final round.

Incredibly, it could have been even better for the likeable Irishman as he missed a putt on the 18th to card the joint-lowest round in Open history, just one shot shy of a 62 posted by Branden Grace at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

His score was still a tournament record after 54 holes and it was between him and Englishman Tommy Fleetwood on the final day to take the honours.

With the wind and the rain making conditions tricky for the golfers, Lowry used his experience of the links – and being roared on by the crowd – to get over the line.

His final round of 72 was enough to complete a dominant six-shot victory over the Englishman, prompting the home support to swarm the 18th fairway to celebrate his memorable success.

Speaking after getting his hands on the Claret Jug, the County Offaly man said: "It's just incredible to be sitting here with a trophy in front of me.

“Look at the names on it. I couldn't believe that it was me. I couldn't believe it was happening.

“I thought about it all day but I didn't really let myself think about it until I hit my tee shot on 17. As soon as I hit that tee shot, I knew that I couldn't really lose a ball from there, and that's how I felt."

Lowry was not the only player to write his name into the Open record books either, with Ryan Fox setting a back-nine record score at The Open of 29 with six birdies in seven holes on Thursday

Royal Portrush also had record crowds of almost 250,000 across the four days of action – marking the highest figure outside of St Andrews.

Speaking at the time, Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of the R&A, said: “This is a huge week not just for The Open but for golf as well. We are making history with a record attendance for a Championship staged outside of St Andrews and the levels of excitement among fans this week have been phenomenal.

“I said last year that big time sport needs big time crowds and we certainly have that at Royal Portrush as we stage the biggest sporting event ever to be held in Northern Ireland. The eyes of the sporting world are firmly set on Royal Portrush.”