Irish eyes are smiling: McIlroy and Lowry win big in New Orleans

By James On Apr 28, 2024

Irish duo Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry came through a play-off to win the Zurich Classic over New Orleans.

Late in the fourth round, Lowry took full advantage of a great chip on the 18th green from McIlroy by sinking a birdie putt, extending the match as they joined Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey at 25 under at TPC Louisiana .

The American duo were among the early starters and were 26 places at the top of the leaderboard with a round of 63 with seven birdies on the back nine, but the almost three-hour wait to see if their score would hold meant they were in the final came. play-off looks rusty.

And after Ramey sent his second shot into the road to the left, Trainer came up short in his attempt to reach the green.

That gave Ryder Cup teammates McIlroy and Lowry the advantage despite the latter finding 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 victory – McIlroy’s 25th career PGA Tour victory.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” McIlroy said on CBS Sports. “We had a great week here in New Orleans. The crowds have been absolutely amazing, to get the support that we’ve had there. We had so much fun doing it and it’s just a bonus to win at the end. It couldn’t be better than doing this with this man next to me.”

Lowry added: “It’s great. It felt desperately needed. Coming into this week we felt like we could make a big jump for the FedEx Cup, let’s get 400 points each and that’s what we did.

“I feel a little bad taking them because Rory carried me, but I’ll take them.”