SHANE Lowry, wife Wendy and even their pet dog Paddy were left wiped after a day celebrating Shane turning 38.
The golfer’s big day fell on Wednesday, one day after he’d gotten in the mood for the looming Masters tournament in Augusta, Georgia.
On Tuesday the Offaly ace was clearly getting excited at the most fabled tournament of the lot being only slightly more than a week away.
He busted out an official branded coffee cup to start his day with the Ray Charles classic “Georgia On My Mind” picked out as the clip’s musical accompaniment.
The competition is famed for only selling branded souvenirs on site at Augusta National during each year’s edition of the four-day highlight of the golfing calendar.
Lowry has been given a 33/1 chance by oddsmakers to end up being the lucky one who gets to throw on the Green Jacket when the final round finishes up on Sunday April 13.
And somehow, despite him nearly seeming to be cursed around the Georgia course, Rory McIlroy has been installed as SECOND-FAVOURITE behind only Scottie Scheffler.
McIlroy is listed at 6/1 while the defending champion is 4/1.
In fairness to County Down’s most famous son, he is coming off winning The Players as well as a tie for fifth at the Houston Open.
He did though, make an alarming admission in an interview immediately after his Sunday round.
He initially said: “I still feel like I’ve got some stuff to work on, but overall, a solid week and nice to have another week to get ready and fine-tune my game going to Augusta.
“I still don’t think my game is 100 percent under the control I want. But it’s nice to have a week to work on some things.”
But then came a worrying injury admission.
He added: “My right elbow’s been bothering me a little bit.
“So maybe just get some treatment on that and make sure that that’s okay going into Augusta.
“I’ve got my coach, Michael Bannon, coming in tomorrow.
“We’ll do some work. And, you know, make sure that everything’s in good shape for a week’s time.
“It’s just about feeling as comfortable as I can be with the things I’ve been working on.
“And those are iron play, wedges, obviously, short game is really, really important around Augusta as well.
“So I’ll work on those things over the next few days, and hopefully I’m feeling good going in there.”
