Shane Lowry's superb WGC win will change his life, says Paul McGinley

Paul McGinley pays a glowing tribute to fellow Irishman Shane Lowry after his sensational WGC-Bridgestone Invitational victory, capping a strong showing from European golfers at Firestone Country Club.

What a performance from Shane Lowry at Firestone, absolute special. It’s life-changing for Shane in so many ways, with his FedExCup qualification, and also securing his PGA Tour card.

Obviously he’s going to stay in Europe and stay loyal to the European Tour and the Ryder Cup is on the horizon for him, but a whole new world has opened up for Shane.

I’m so happy for him. He played the best golf at Firestone and deserved to win. Shane showed a lot of heart. As Ewan Murray said in commentary, there were so many pivotal moments. Yes he got a great break on the 18th, but he didn’t have that on the 17th when he also hit way wide of the fairway.

He got a break and clipped the tree near us before it came down on the fairway, but in three years that shot will be forgotten. All that will be remembered is that he’s won a World Golf Championship, he's won over here in America, broken so many barriers and moved to a completely new level.

He holed some pivotal putts and as Ewan also said in commentary, if he got up and down at the 17th he deserved to win and I agreed with that 100%.

Shot of the year?

For me, that shot at the 10th was shot of the week and potentially shot of the year. To get his shot up and over there wasn’t a single ounce of strength that was left behind with that stroke. Sometimes it’s meant to be and I think it was meant to be for Shane.

He’s a brilliant chipper and it’s probably the strongest part of his game. He’s driven the ball long, straight and has holed some very important putts. The 14th was also huge and what it does to your heart and soul is massive. From there he was always going on to win.

He got lucky, but so what? Maybe God is a man from Offaly!

Shane is a popular guy and is a proper Irishman in so many ways with how he leads his life and integrates himself into Irish culture.

There’s something very refreshing about watching Shane play golf and I’m so happy for him. It’s such a big boost and the world really is his oyster.

Tough for final pair

Jim Furyk and Justin Rose have dragged each other down, I don’t know whether it’s by watching each other or not. For Justin, it’s always going to be difficult to match what he did on Saturday. He said after the third round that it was probably the best round he’s played in his life, so it was always going to be tough today no matter what level you’re at.

Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler played well but I think a lot of European’s showed a lot of form, so we’ve got to be buoyant about not just a European Tour member winning but the number of players who played well.

The future is very bright for us in Europe and the players are holding their own no matter where they go around the world and that can only point in one direction.