Wendy Honner is a nurse from Ireland about to make her entrance on the big stage.
The wife of golfer Shane Lowry has been gaining interest as her new husband continues his unlikely run through the 2016 U.S. Open, where he opened the final day in position to take home the trophy.
The 29-year-old Lowry isn’t exactly among golf’s elite players. He made a name for himself in 2009 when he won the Irish Open as an amateur, but then has just one PGA Tour victory to go along with three on the European Tour. He has been at the doorstep in a handful of major tournaments, including ninth place finishes in the 2015 U.S. Open and The Open Championship in 2014.
Lowry didn’t exactly come from nowhere. His father, Brendan, is an All-Ireland football medal winner and was on the powerhouse Offaly team in the 1980s, the Irish Times noted.
It was actually a tour loss that led to one of the biggest moments in Shane Lowry’s life. As Heavy.com noted, he proposed to now-wife Wendy Lowry after a 2014 top five finish.
“Lowry got down on bended knee in Dubai at the end of 2014, after a fifth-place finish at the World Tour Championship. He chose the famous Atlantis Hotel overlooking Dubai’s Palm islands as the setting for the proposal.”
Shane Lowry and wife Wendy Honner made headlines in the U.K. earlier this year when the couple decided to cut short their engagement plans and head to New York to elope. The Irish golfer said as the wedding planning got bigger and bigger, they both realized that they didn’t want “the big white wedding” and instead headed to the Big Apple.
“The guest list [was spiralling] and I get stressed very easily,” he told 2FM (via the Irish Mirror ). “So we decided the big white wedding at home was not what we wanted. We cancelled plans a few months ago and told both our families, and as long as they were pretty happy, we were happy to go ahead.”
????? pic.twitter.com/hmqEwhZPcN
— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) April 13, 2016
Shane Lowry and his new wife had a small ceremony, with their photographer actually serving as the witness for the ceremony.
Though the couple has a relatively small stature on the international stage, both Shane Lowry and wife Wendy Honner were thrust into the spotlight during his run through the 2016 U.S. Open. Lowry, who came into the tournament as the 41st ranked golfer in the world, opened the final day with a four-stroke lead.
He started on Sunday up two and quickly added as play resumed from the darkness-shortened round on Saturday, sinking an 11-foot putt for birdie on the 15th hole and a 7-foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole.
But with the final group set to tee off at 3:30 p.m. ET, Lowry said he wasn’t getting ahead of himself.
Happy birthday @ShaneLowryGolf ????? pic.twitter.com/hGPpfTJQCP
— Wendy Iris Lowry (@wendyirishonner) April 2, 2016
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. These are the best golfers in the world behind me,” Lowry said Saturday (via ESPN ). “I have to go out there and do what I’ve been doing all week.”
Lowry added that he can’t let the pressure of the moment overtake him, the Irish Times reported.
“No matter what happens, I just have to get up and play the next shot. I’m sure there are going to be little twists in the tale this afternoon, I will be expecting that, and we will just have to see how it goes. A few shot lead is obviously nice, but I’ll just have to go out and shoot the best score I can and see where that leaves me on the 18th green. If that’s good enough, I’ll be quite happy.”
If Shane Lowry can hold onto his 2016 U.S. Open lead, he and wife Wendy Honner may need to get used to being in the spotlight.
[Image via Twitter /Shane Lowry]
