Shane Lowry: ‘It’s not just a transactional thing for me anymore where you get a logo, do a day and get paid’

Off the golf course, Shane Lowry is managing his own business affairs and planning for the future away from the toursShane Lowry has become more involved in his business affairs since setting up his own management company at the end of 2024. Photograph: INPHO/Ben Brady Like most of us, the older Shane Lowry gets, the more important his time has become to him. It’s now 17 years since the 39 year old won the Irish Open as an amateur and started a career in professional golf that has seen him win a major and be one of the most recognisable players in the world. He cemented his status as one of the top European players of his era on Sunday with his second Irish Open.When you have the CV that he has – winner of The Open, multiple winner on the PGA Tour in the US and DP World Tour in Europe as well as a Ryder Cup star – it must be tempting to cash in on as many sponsorship deals and money spinners that may come to him. That’s not the case though, especially as he looks ahead to what, by his own account, will be the latter stages of his career. “I’m in a fortunate position where I don’t just do any deals, it has to be the right thing for me now,” he says when we meet in Doonbeg, Co Clare ahead of the Irish Open tournament. “Especially at this stage of my career, I’ve been around so long that time is important to me, the right partner is important to me. It’s not just a transactional thing for me anymore where you get a logo, do a day and get paid.”Lowry’s career to date has been a lucrative one: his on course earnings include $32.8 million (€27.8 million) on the PGA Tour alone, while the most recent accounts for the company that manages his royalties and trademarks – SFL Marketing Ltd – reported accumulated profits of €19.7 million at the end of 2024. He earned another $1.02 million (€880,000) with Sunday’s victory.READ MORELike most top pros, the Offaly native has a range of sponsorship deals. His golf equipment comes from Srixon, but he is also an ambassador for a number of companies, from medical devices giant Stryker to the likes of biopharmaceuticals multinational Amgen as well as Royal Bank of Canada and payments giant Mastercard, not to mention insurer Zurich and Declan Kelly’s advisory firm Consello. Lowry likes to have what he describes as a “personal relationship” with his sponsors, and by that measure, his Stryker deal – announced this summer – must be one of his closest. He already had a personal connection with the company through his father Brendan, who has a replacement hip and knee manufactured by Stryker. It was from that very personal beginning that he ended up working with the company. “People started talking then,” he said. “Stryker were great to us at the start and in the middle, during and after the surgeries and things happen, the relationship grew and here we are.”Dealing with a sponsor can involve different commitments for a golfer. Apart from the basics of a company paying a player to wear their logo, the relationship can benefit both sides in different ways. Usually the player would have to commit to a certain number of sponsor events per year. That could mean golf outings with staff or clients, speaking engagements, dinners or media commitments as well as playing a minimum number of tournaments per year. But in return, apart from getting paid, the player gets access to top company executives and networking opportunities that can be invaluable for the long term. It can be a mutually beneficial arrangement.[ Irish Open at Doonbeg: What are the tee times? What TV channel is it on? Is Donald Trump going to be there?Opens in new window ]It would be easy for someone in Lowry’s position to take a relaxed view of his finances, but clearly that is not the case. He left management company Horizon at the end of 2024 to look after his affairs himself. His long-time handler Brian Moran came with him from Horizon. That move has seen him take a closer interest in that side of his career.“I’ve had to become more involved. For the first period of my career, I was sort of oblivious to everything, all I wanted to do was play golf but for the last couple of years I’ve really tried to get involved and really tried to stay on top of things,” he adds. Irish Open: Shane Lowry plays from the fairway on the fifteenth of the Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Doonbeg Ireland. Photo: INPHO/Ben Brady To that end, Lowry admits that he has been lucky to have people around him both he and Moran have been able to draw on as they strike out on their own in business. He cites Rory McIlroy’s manager Sean O’Flaherty as someone who has helped him in that time.“It’s a big bad world and we’re diving in together,” he says. “It’s great to have someone you trust by your side and I feel like I have that with Brian.”Business relationships clearly matter to Lowry. If he played almost any other sport, he would be close to retired, or at the very least his best days would be well and truly behind him. For most sportspeople, they would need what relationships they had built up as a player in retirement. Having earned tens of millions of euro though, and playing a sport many people do into their dotage, those pressures aren’t there for Lowry in the same way. Still, he is adamant about the importance of having a plan for what’s next. “I’m fortunate that in golf when I finish, I won’t have to work but also I’ll have to do something. I feel like I still have some of the best golf of my career ahead of me but there is no harm looking at the future and planning. I’m very fortunate that the connections I’ve made will help me along the way.”[ Irish Open: Shane Lowry best of the Irish on long opening day at windy DoonbegOpens in new window ]While he is still a proud Irishman, the Florida-based Lowry regards himself as a global player. His main sponsors are now uniformly blue chip corporations with global reach. Many of them have big Irish operations too – Stryker, for example, is headquartered in the US but has operations in Cork and Limerick. That’s an added bonus but not necessarily vital to their tie up with Lowry. Still, being Irish is something of a skeleton key for doing business in the US. “There are a lot of people in America with Irish connections, Irish offices as well so it does help being Irish. I love being Irish but I’m lucky I’m Irish, too,” he says.The business side of sport is not something that’s really on the mind of most young players, but as they get older, it’s inevitable it will take up more of their time. For Lowry that has been no different, but he has learned to embrace the challenges that it involves. “I do enjoy it,” he says. “It’s important to stay on top of things when it comes to your finances, when it comes to your whole outlook of your business world.” IN THIS SECTION