Irish golf star Shane Lowry ‘excited about going with a chance to win an Olympic medal’
With less than 100 days to go until the men’s golf competition kicks off at Paris 2024, the race is on to qualify for the upcoming Olympic Games.
At the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week the winner of the 2019 Open Championship, Shane Lowry is teeing it up alongside his fellow Irishman Rory McIlroy.
And with Paris 2024 lurking on the horizon, Lowry is beginning to look forward to the summer.
“I’m excited about going with a chance to win an Olympic medal,” Lowry, who finished 22nd at Tokyo 2020, told pgatour.com. “That would be something very special.”
“Ireland has not won a ridiculous amount of medals over the years, so to be able to bring a medal back to Ireland would be very cool. I’ve done some really cool things in golf and that would be definitely up there.”
In Japan three years ago, Lowry could watch his good friend McIlroy fight for the bronze medal in the playoff.
Eventually, the four-time major championship winner had to settle for fourth place.
“What struck me that time was how hard he (McIlroy) took that, how much he wanted it. It just shows how much it actually means to us,” Lowry said.
“It’s going to be pretty cool to be there with one of my best friends and both of us going there. We’d be going there with hopefully genuine chances to win a medal, and that would be very cool.”
The men’s golf competition will be contested from 1 to 4 August at the renowned Le Golf National. The qualification period for Paris 2024 ends in June.
At Tokyo 2020, Xander Schauffele of the United Stated claimed the gold medal in the men's event.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.