Irish pair Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry emerged victorious in a playoff to claim the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Lowry capitalized on a fantastic chip from McIlroy to the 18th green by sinking a birdie putt, forcing a tie with Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey at 25 under at TPC Louisiana.
Despite Trainer and Ramey initially taking the lead with a strong round of 63, the wait for the playoff made them lose momentum. Ramey’s wayward shot and Trainer’s missed putt gave McIlroy and Lowry the upper hand, securing McIlroy’s 25th career PGA Tour win.
“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 expressed. “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 joined popular local cover band Bag of Donuts on stage for a post-tournament concert. McIlroy even took the microphone and sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” to the crowd.
“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 reflected. “Reinjecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week, it can always help.”
