Closing out on a historic Open-winning year, Shane Lowry's coach Neil Manchip joined Friday's OTB AM to recall the events of winning in Portrush and look ahead to the golfer's 2020.
Manchip was on OTB AM to recount Lowry's win as part of Off The Ball's quest to crown Irish sport's most memorable sporting moment of the decade.
On Friday's show, Lowry's Open win on home soil was pitted against Johnny Sexton's last gasp drop goal in Paris in 2018. However, Manchip wasn't just reflecting on Clara man's first major but also previewed the targets in Lowry's packed 2020, set to include an Olympics and Ryder Cup.
"The targets would be around the Ryder Cup coming up later in the year but before that, I'm really excited about the Olympics," Manchip explained.
"The two Irish players who will be there will be the top two Irish players in the Olympic rankings which at the moment, Rory [McIlroy] is number two and Shane is number 12 so both are very, very highly ranked.
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"So it looks like, at the moment, the team will be Shane and Rory for Tokyo right at the end of July so that is a very exciting thing to look forward to.
"We were out looking at the golf course just northwest of Tokyo back in October. It's a beautiful golf course so it will really suit both the lads."
The Open
Reflecting on Lowry's win at Royal Portrush, Manchip said that Thursday's four-under round was an important foundation for the historic weekend.
"It was an amazing week and it was very close to a wire-to-wire, getting off to a great start on Thursday shooting four-under, which was a great settler and just brilliant to get off to a really solid start in what was probably the biggest tournament of his career so far."
