‘Excited’ Rory McIlroy Divulges the ‘Drunken’ Truth Behind the Shane Lowry Zurich Classic Team-Up

The 19th event on the 2024 PGA Tour calendar is just a month away. Meanwhile, it has already managed to garner a bit of headline, all thanks to the current No.2 Rory McIlroy gearing up for his debut appearance at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. What’s more, he would be teeing it up for the two-man team event with his close friend, Shane Lowry.

However, as the pair steadily gets ready for the event that will kick off on April 25, a video of the Northern Irishman was shared on Instagram by GOLF.com just hours ago. Interestingly, in the post, McIlroy had gone ahead to divulge the story behind the curious team-up between the two friends.

The Rory McIlroy-Shane Lowry partnership story

“Very excited,” expressed the 34-year-old when he was inquired by Claire Rogers about playing with Lowry at the upcoming Zurich Classic. Adding on, he mentioned how he’s “known for a bit” about the partnership, eliciting another curious question from the journalist about the story, “who asked who?”

“I asked him,” replied the 4-time major champ as he surprisingly recounted the story. Adding on, he said, “You know, it was actually, we had this, like, really drunken lunch after the Ryder Cup last year, the week after and I said to him, ‘You want to play Zurich together?, so we’re like ‘Yeah’.”

Fascinatingly, this would be the first time that Rory McIlroy will be taking part in the event. However, the same cannot be said for Lowry, whose former partner, Padraig Harrington, is now playing on the Champions Tour. Anyhow, the current No.2 in the world seemed to be visibly excited about the tournament as he added, “I’ve never played before so, that’ll be good.”

Well, the two would certainly be hoping to come out on top, especially owing it to being the Northern Irishman’s debut at the same. However, it would be the fifth time that his fellow Irishman will be taking up the clubs for the two-man event.

Lowry at the Zurich Classic

The 36-year-old has played four times in the Zurich Classic, out of which he missed the cut two times in 2013, and 2019. In the other two instances, he could finish T28 in 2018, followed by a T12 finish in 2022. But, now that McIlroy’s here, he would be hoping to replicate the success they had in the 2023 Ryder Cup.

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The two PGA Tour Pros have been teammates for the prestigious tournament two times. The most recent one saw the Northern Irishman winning four out of his five matches while losing out on the Saturday Fourballs. Meanwhile, Lowry could finish the event with figures of 1-1-1 over the three days of play at the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club. Regardless, the European team could emerge victorious at the end with figures of 16.5-11.5. The two would be looking to finish on a similar note at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans as well.

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