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Irish golfer Shane Lowry put out a humorous note to the world of golf, when he shared a video of his colleague Erik Van Royen practicing his swing. While Van Royen was doing this, Lowry described what was happening in sports announcer style.
The event took place during the practice day prior to the Canadian Open, which began Thursday at the Oakdale Golf & Country Club in Toronto. Lowry jokingly compared Van Rooyen's swing to (what he thinks are) the chances for the South African Rugby team at the next World Cup.
As Erik Van Rooyen executed his stroke, Shane Lowry made his ‘expert commentary’ as follows:
"Six-iron off the tee - wrong club - too far back. Erik Van Rooyen here on 18. Where are we? - Somewhere in Canada."
"Ohh..... it'll just be like South Africa in the World Cup. It's just come up a little bit short."
Ireland and South Africa, home countries of both golfers, will be competing in Pool B of the Rugby World Cup, which will be held in France between September and October 2023. Both the Springboks and the Shamrock XV have a difficult task to advance in a very strong group that they share with Scotland, Tonga and Romania.
Shane Lowry and Erick Van Royen on the PGA Tour
Shane Lowry has been playing golf professionally since 2009. He officially joined the PGA Tour in 2015. At this level, he has played 159 tournaments with two wins, three runners up, three third places and 22 Top 10s as best results, with 115 cuts passed.
His two victories came at the 2015 World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational and the 2019 Open Championship.
Shane Lowry has also developed a large part of his career in the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) where he has four victories so far: The 3 Irish Open in 2009, the Portugal Masters in 2012, the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, presented by EGA in 2019, and the BMW PGA Championship in 2022.
Erik Van Royen, on the other hand, has been a professional since 2013 and has not yet obtained his PGA Tour card. However, he has played in 79 tournaments in that circuit, with a victory, a third place and 10 Top 10 as best results. His victory came at the Barracuda Championship in 2020.
On the DP World Tour, he has had better luck, with two wins so far: the 2017 Hainan Open and the 2019 Scandinavian Invitation. He also won the 2017 Eye of Africa PGA Championship, a tournament belonging to the Sunshine Tour.
