<p>Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry sing sing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” after their win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans</p>
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry hope their playoff win in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans can set them up for some major summer success.
The former Ireland teammates fell five shots off the pace at TPC Louisiana before playing their last 12 holes in five under to force sudden death with Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer.
But after making par on the 18th in sudden death to win the title, Lowry was relieved to get his first PGA TOUR win since The Open in 2019 and some badly needed FedEx Cup points.
“I wasn't going to be in Quail Hollow,” Lowry said. “I was hoping to get an invite for Memorial and with the Travelers, I really didn't know what was going to happen.
“I knew I needed to make up some FedExCup points, and this gets me in those, and it means I can plan my schedule now.
“With family stuff and my wife and kids going back to Ireland in the summer, it means I really don't have to stay over here and grind it out too long. I can do more what I feel like I want to do.
“It's freed me up a lot this summer. Hopefully, we can both kick on now. We've got three majors left. Hopefully, we can get one each, or maybe two and one.”
“That would be nice,” McIlroy said with a laugh, but in truth, the two Irishmen did everything in their power to make the other feel good, and the positive talk worked wonders.
They arrived in New Orleans looking for a spark after a disappointing Masters and some recent technical struggles.
“You know, we both felt like we needed to come in here and maybe have a very strong week because we wanted to get our summer going, and we've got a lot of big golf coming up soon,” said Lowry, who jumps from 41st to 12th in the FedEx Cup standings with McIlroy up from 44th to 15th.
“We felt it would be nice to get that jump up the FedExCup that we both wanted.
☘️ Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry sing Journey’s “Don’t stop believing” after their win at the @Zurich_Classic @TrackingRory @LowryTracker
— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) April 28, 2024
pic.twitter.com/MsgKDeU5iN
“It's nice, it's great to get a win. It was great fun all week, everything about it was just brilliant.
“I've enjoyed every minute of it, like having this man by my side — you saw the drive he hit up the 18th, the 72nd hole. When you've got him doing that, it's pretty easy to play golf from there for me.
“I made it look hard at times, but no, it was amazing. We went out there, we had loads of fun, and we won the tournament. You couldn't ask for a better week.”
McIlroy has not looked to be enjoying his golf as much of late and had recorded just one top 10 in eight PGA TOUR starts before getting over the winning line last night.
Playing with Lowry appeared to lighten the load and it may prove a turning point for him as he seeks to end that long wait for a fifth Major win.
“The reason that Shane and I both started to play golf is because we thought it was fun at some stage in our life,” said McIlroy, who is now tied with Tommy Armour, Johnny Miller and Macdonald Smith for 23rd on the all-time PGA TOUR wins list with 25.
“I think sort of re-injecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week, it can always help.”
McIlroy also thinks the win can help their games for the remainder of the season.
“To play the sort of golf we did coming down the stretch when there was a little bit of pressure, I think that'll stand to us, also,” he said.
“I've always felt like I play my best golf when I'm enjoying myself, and it's hard not to enjoy yourself when you're out there walking the fairways with Shane.”
“I think to win any PGA TOUR event is very cool, but to do it with one of your closest friends, we've known each other for a long, long time, probably like over 20 years, so to think about where we met and where we've come from, to be on this stage and do this together, really, really cool journey that we've been a part of, and yeah, just awesome to be able to do it alongside this guy.”
McIlroy’s presence contributed to record crowds at TPC Louisiana and he was feted like a king all week, even receiving a standing ovation in a New Orleans restaurant on Saturday night.
“It was weird for me,” Lowry said. “That stuff doesn't happen to me.”
McIlroy laughed and said: “It doesn't happen to me, either.”
“He's getting old, but he can still move the needle a little bit,” Lowry replied. “Rory brings a crowd, and people love him. We've got a lot of love this week in New Orleans, and we've had just the best week.
“Over the last couple of months or the last few tournaments, I’ve struggled on the greens a little bit. I changed my putter this week. It feels really good but I'm not trusting it as well as I would like.
“I missed a couple of short putts and that kind of gets me down a little bit. But Rory is there backing me up this week, and he was a great teammate, and he made me believe in myself. It was good to have him there to do that.”
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