YOU just can’t help yourself. Even two weeks later, we still shake our heads in disbelief that it really happened. There he was in the press tent at the rather plush London Club near the motor racing circuit at Brands Hatch in deepest Kent yesterday, entertaining and enthralling some of Britain’s most cynical and hard bitten hacks as to how he has taken the winning of the Irish Open in his stride.

Could that really be the case? How could a 22 year-old amateur from a little town in the middle of Ireland called Clara and playing out of a course carved out of the million year old Esker Riada beaten many of Europe’s finest golfers and behave as if it was no big deal!

Shane Lowry sat up there with an easy smile yesterday and made his first media conference as a pro seem like a piece of cake. No, I’m not a gambler. No, I’m not worried about the half million euro I didn’t get at Baltray because I knew I wasn’t going to win that money.

Yes, I know I’ve done the right thing by turning professional. Yes, now is the right time, and no, I have no regrets at not playing the pro-am because my manager Conor Ridge felt it wasn’t in my best interests to do so. Immediate goals? To just go out and enjoy myself.

Some of the Brits felt he might be getting too easy a ride so inevitably the little matter of a few four letter words that turned the Baltray air a mild shade of blue was brought up. The smile brightened still further, the massive shoulders shrugged and he dismissed it as “one of those things, I was trying so hard to win and because it was me , it was highlighted a bit more. It was in the heat of things and I’ll have to calm down a small bit."

You felt like telling him not to calm down too much only to realise he doesn’t need advice on that score. It’s a done deal and anyway behaving properly on the golf course comes easily to all these guys who have been brought up, in a matter of speaking, by the Golfing Union of Ireland.

Shane sounded a little baffled and found it difficult to explain why he didn’t return a call to Padraig Harrington because “I thought it was a wind-up” while not hesitating in getting back to President Mary McAleese.

After twenty minutes or so, he looked around. No further questions so the massive 15 stone plus frame shifted out of the chair as he revealed that “I can’t wait to get out on the golf course, it’s a lot more peaceful out there”.