Irish pair Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry came through a playoff to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
At the end of the fourth round, Lowry made the most of a superb chip on to the 18th green by McIlroy by sinking a birdie putt, extending the contest as they joined Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey on 25 under at TPC Louisiana.
The American pair had been among the early starters, powering 26 places up the leaderboard with a round of 63 that included seven birdies on the back nine, but the near three-hour wait to see if their score would hold up meant they came into the play-off looking rusty. And after Ramey pulled his second shot left and on to a road, Trainer came up short in his effort to reach the green.
That gave Ryder Cup teammates McIlroy and Lowry the advantage despite the latter having found sand with his second shot, but after Lowry missed a putt for par, they needed Trainer to narrowly miss his own putt to confirm their win – McIlroy’s 25th career PGA Tour win.
Rory McIlroy chips to the second green during the final round at TPC Louisiana
“We’ve had so much fun while doing it and it’s just a bonus to win at the end”
“It’s absolutely amazing,” McIlroy said. “We’ve had an awesome week here in New Orleans. The crowds have been amazing, to get the support we’ve had out there. We’ve had so much fun while doing it and it’s just a bonus to win at the end. It couldn’t be better than to do it with this man alongside me.”
Lowry added: “It’s great. It felt much needed. Coming into the week we felt we could do with a big jump for the FedEx Cup, let’s get 400 points each and that’s what we’ve done. I feel a little bit bad taking them because Rory carried me, but I’m taking them.”
Before leaving the TPC Louisiana grounds, McIlroy and Lowry walked on stage while popular local cover band Bag of Donuts was performing a post-tournament concert. The band gave McIlroy a microphone, and he serenaded the crowd, singing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.'”
“The reason that Shane and I both started to play golf is because we thought it was fun at some stage in our life,” McIlroy said. “Reinjecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week, it can always help.”
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