MIAMI – Irish eyes were smiling at the TPC Louisiana on April 28, as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry prevailed in a play-off to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in McIlroy’s debut at the team tournament in Avondale, Louisiana.
McIlroy, the four-time Major champion from Northern Ireland, and Lowry, his friend, fellow Major winner and former Ryder Cup teammate from Ireland, put the Zurich on their schedule hoping to boost their positions in the FedExCup standings.
They each received 400 FedExCup points and vaulted into the top 15 of the rankings after defeating American Chad Ramey and France’s Martin Trainer on the first play-off hole.
It marked McIlroy’s 25th PGA Tour win and Lowry’s third. Lowry had not won on United States soil since August 2015.
McIlroy dubbed his first trip to New Orleans “absolutely amazing”.
“To win any PGA Tour event is very cool,” he said.
“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.”
After starting the day seven shots off the lead, Ramey and Trainer fired a nine-under 63 in the round of foursomes (alternate shot) to head to the clubhouse at 25-under 263.
Other teams in the 25-under range soon wobbled and fell back – including McIlroy and Lowry, for a brief time, before they rebounded from a bogey at No. 17 with a birdie at the par-five 18th to force the play-off.
They returned to the 18th tee to begin the play-off, and Ramey’s second shot hooked left over the gallery.
Trainer could not hit his third shot hard enough onto the green.
Meanwhile, Lowry found the bunker on the second shot but McIlroy made a nice recovery – similar to his pitch shot on the same hole that set up Lowry’s five-foot birdie to force the play-off.
Lowry’s birdie try came to rest inches from the cup, but Trainer missed a short par putt that would have extended the play-off.
“You’ve seen the drive (McIlroy) hit up the 18th, the 72nd hole,” Lowry said. “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.”
Americans Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard shot a 69 and finished one shot off the lead after closing with four straight pars.
On the women’s LPGA Tour, Hannah Green of Australia used a sizzling stretch on the back nine to claim back-to-back LA Championship titles at Los Angeles’ Wilshire Country Club on April 28.
Green, who won the 2023 tournament in a three-way play-off, earned a more comfortable three-stroke win this time, with three birdies and an eagle in the last seven holes for a five-under 66.
Sweden’s Maja Stark, who finished birdie-birdie for a 68 and a nine-under 275, was the only player within five shots of Green’s 12-under 272 total.
Green, 27, earned her fifth LPGA Tour win and her second since March’s HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore.
“I felt like a couple times today, I almost got like a member bounce,” Green said of the course on the Golf Channel broadcast. REUTERS
