In a rather dramatic Sunday afternoon at TPC Louisiana, Irishmen Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in a playoff over Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer.
It was the Zurich debut for McIlroy, ranked second by the Official World Golf Ranking, and the first time that McIlroy and Lowry teamed up in any event other than the Ryder Cup for the European side.
Sunday was an alternating shot format with the pair trailing going to 18. However, a great chip from McIlroy out of the fairway bunker set Lowry up with a makeable birdie putt that he converted to send the only team tournament on the PGA Tour to a playoff.
Once they returned to the 18th tee, Trainer’s tee shot went to the first cut on the left of the fairway while McIlroy laid up in the center of the fairway. Things turned further when Ramey’s second shot flew to the left and ended up on the cart path near the stadium seating around the 18th green. Lowry’s shot found the same bunker that McIlroy got them out of maybe 10 minutes prior.
McIlroy’s bunker shot once again found the green and they were able to knock it in for par before Trainer’s par putt was pushed to the right and gave McIlroy his 25th career PGA Tour win.
“Absolutely amazing”, McIlroy said on the CBS broadcast on the 18th green. “We’ve had an awesome week here in New Orleans, we knew the crowd would be amazing…to get the support that we’ve had while being here has been amazing. It feels like a bit of bonus to win at the end, but it couldn’t be better to have this man (Lowry) beside me and get a PGA Tour win together.”
“It’s great”, Lowry said about the win “I don’t want to say it was much needed, but we felt coming into the week that we could both use the 400 FedEx Cup points. I honestly feel bad for taking them since Rory carried me most of the week, but they’re mine and I’m not giving them back.”
1 McIlroy/ Lowry -25 F -4
2 Ramey/ Trainer -25 F -9
3 Brehm/ Hubbard -24 F -3
T4 Higgo/ Fox -23 F -7
T4 Stevens/ Barjon -23 F -8
T4 Blair/ Fishburn -23 F E
T4 Echavarria/ Greyserman -23 F -3
T8 Sigg/ Hadley -22 F -6
T8 Detry/ MacIntyre -22 F -3 (MacIntyre golfed at McNeese)
10 Taylor/ Hadwin -21 F -1
T11 Kraft/ Tway -20 F -4
T11 Eckroat/ Gotterup -20 F -3
T11 Garnett/ Straka -20 F -4
T11 Lee/ Kim -20 F E
T11 Fitzpatrick/ Fitzpatrick -20 F -3
T11 Hoffman/ Watney -20 F -2
T11 Conners/ Pendrith -20 F -2
T11 Tarren/ Skinns -20 F -1
T19 Phillips/ Bridgeman -19 F -2
T19 Malnati/ Knox -19 F -1
T19 List/ Norlander -19 F +3
T19 Johnson/ Palmer -19 F E (Palmer former winner)
T23 Morikawa/ Kitayama -18 F -2
T23 Meissner/ Smotherman -18 F E
T23 Cantlay/ Schauffele -18 F -2 (2022 champs)
T23 Thompson/ Novak -18 F -1
T23 Rai/ Lipsky -18 F -1
T28 Hardy/ Riley -17 F -2 (2023 champs)
T28 Wu/ Nicholas -17 F -2
T28 Ghim/ Kim -17 F -3
T28 Yu/ Pan -17 F +3
T28 Wu/ Lower -17 F E
T28 Kohles/ Kizzire -17 F +1
T28 Hall/ Piercy -17 F +1
T28 Mitchell/ Dahmen -17 F +1
36 Wallace/ Olesen -16 F +1
37 Taylor/ O’Hair -15 F +2
38 Lashley/ Campos -14 F +1
39 Norrman/ Campillo -13 F +2
40 Reavie/ Snedeker -9 F -1