Shane Lowry became just the third amateur to ever win a European Tour event on Sunday by virtue of a playoff triumph in thr 3 Irish Open.  He beat Robert Rock in a playoff, in his first ever European Tour start, and won his national championship in the process.

To read the whole story, check out Jason Sobel's retelling of the playoff at ESPN.com.  It's well done.

Here's the video from Ottawa Golf Blog.

 

It was a thrilling finale to a great week on course for the European Tour.  The Lowry win is also the third amateur win on the European Tour in the last three seasons.  Lowry joins Danny Lee as the second amateur to win on the European Tour this season.  Pablo Martin is the other amateur to have won on the circuit - doing so in Portugal in 2007.

Until the Martin win, the European Tour had gone 1,145 events without an amateur champion.  In around 100 events since, three different amateurs have won. 

This is such a bizarre anamoly in professional golf.  The last amateur to win on the PGA Tour was Phil Mickelson in 1991.  That is more than eighteen years ago.  Since then, amateurs haven't even really sniffed a PGA Tour title.  

Compare that to what is happening on the European Tour.  Given the total number of European Tour events, three amateur wins in about two seasons is almost a trend.

The question, then, is what the slew of amateur victories means for the European Tour.  Seemingly, it all has to be great for the Euro junket.  Players like Danny Lee and Shane Lowry represent fantastic stories that give the game real attention.  In lieu of a win by an established superstar, a win by an amateur is probably the next best thing.

The tradition of amateur success on the European Tour is nothing new, though.  Going back even further, the tradition seemingly began with Justin Rose at the 1998 Open Championship.  Sergio Garcia soon followed.

These days, a host of young players of which call the European Tour home that are making a global splash now as professionals.  Danny Lee is a New Zealander, but how about Rory McIlroy or Chris Wood?  You may not know the name, but Argentinian Estanislao Goya won earlier this season as well.  He's 20.

There's Louis Oostheizen.  Ross Fisher.  Plenty of other names that may well have been introduced to American audiences in the Accenture Match Play.  The amateur wins may have made the stable of young talent more visible, but the European Tour is quickly developing a base for the future that is finding a way to win now.

What's more, perhaps the success of young players has helped spur on the success of Europeans and European Tour players in the majors.  Since Pablo Martin's breakthrough in at the Portguese Open in April 2007, players that began their careers or currently split time with the European Tour have owned the majors.  The only player to not call the European Tour home and win a major in that time frame is Tiger Woods.

Sure, it could be (read: probably is) a complete coincidence that Padraig Harrington and Angel Cabrera figured out the major equation multiple times in the past two or so seasons.  It sure seems, though, that this youth movement on the European Tour correlates to bigger success by Tour names on the biggest stages of golf.