Open champion Shane Lowry is ready for the heat of the battle the PGA Championship will bring, as he lines up with fellow major holders Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland in the opening round.
It was great to feel the heat of battle last Sunday again heading into such a big week with the USPGA Championship teeing off on Thursday.
I gave myself loads of chances on Sunday and could have easily finished three or four shots better at the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, but I was happy with what I got to finish tied for sixth.
I want to keep that momentum up now for the first Major of the season.
This week is all about trying to prepare well, but also to conserve your energy for the final two rounds at the weekend. I'll just try to manage your time, my work and rest periods as best I can.
I’m out early on Thursday morning with Brooks Koepka and Gary Woodland – the last three Major winners together, so that’s pretty cool. I'm actually the last Major winner on the Tour because of how the season has been rejigged due to the pandemic.
Let’s see if the next Major winner comes out of our group. Hopefully it'll be me.
I like playing with the top players as it drives me on. It’s a good draw and a good group to be out in. I’m pretty happy with it.
I played the first two rounds of the US Open with Gary Woodland last season when he went on to win it and I’ve played with Brooks Koepka quite a bit as well - especially during lockdown.
They’re two top players and good lads to go with it.
While I haven’t played this week's venue at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco that often, I did play the WGC Cadillac Match here in 2015. It’s your typical PGA championship course, you need to keep the ball on the fairway and the greens are pretty small.
My tee-to-green play is usually quite good every other week, but you need to hole a few putts as well. There’s definitely an emphasis on driving the ball well.
I don’t think the scoring will be great this week to be honest as it’s a difficult course to score on, but tough courses tend to suit me.
I won’t get carried away with last week’s performance and I’ll just go out there and shoot the best scores I can each day and see what comes with that. I’ve worked pretty hard over the last four or five months, even during lockdown so you kind of have to trust that what you’re doing is the right thing and just get on with it and try to score as well as you can.
I flew up from Memphis on Sunday night and managed to get a few holes of practice in on Monday at TPC Harding Park and then Tuesday morning I played nine holes with Graeme McDowell and will play another nine on Wednesday.
After that there’ll be a lot of resting up and just trying to stay as fresh as I can for Thursday’s tee off and the opening couple of days.
I had no big expectations last week in Memphis and just did my thing and it all worked out. I just went about my business and just played my game. I plan to do the exact same on Thursday and shoot the best score I can and then try to do the same on Friday.
Then we’ll see where it leads me going into the weekend.
Shane Lowry is a Paddy Power Ambassador, read more from him here
