Rory McIlroy Becomes a Laughing Stock in Golf World as His PGA Tour Breakthrough Sparks Huge Doubts

Should team victories be counted as individual wins for a golfer? This is the latest debate that Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry have given rise to with their Zurich Classic win in New Orleans. The duo emerged triumphant at TPC Louisiana after defeating Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer in a playoff last week. With it, McIlroy marked his 25th win on Tour; Lowry, on the other hand, made it his third.

Notably, the feat made Rory McIlroy only the 26th player in the history of the Tour to have achieved 25 victories. The win also came after a long nine-month wait; his previous Tour win was at the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open. In a tweet highlighting this accolade, Bob Harig also mentioned that of all the players the Northern Irishman had ever played alongside, only four had more wins than him: Tiger Woods with 82 wins, Phil Mickelson with 45, Tom Watson with 39, and Vijay Singh with 34.

It will undoubtedly take numerous successful seasons for the Northern Irishman to even come close to those four stars’ wins. But he can go level with Henry Picard if he adds one more Tour win. However, even if he matches their feat, it would not be fair, according to Brandel Chamblee.

Renowned analyst Brandel Chamblee deemed McIlroy’s 25th win an unjust one, for it wasn’t his alone. As per him, the team element of the Zurich Classic made it unfit to be counted as an individual win.

He tweeted, “Team wins should have their own category amongst “tour wins”… most golf fans, if not ALL golf fans assume “individual” wins when a player’s total tour wins are named.”

Surprisingly, many were in agreement with this bold statement Chamblee had made. And taking to X, they left no stone unturned in letting McIlroy and Co. know that!

Netizens put an ‘asterisk’ in front of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry’s win

Although this time Talor Gooch was not in the field of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, his ‘infamous’ asterisk remark, did make it into the comment section. Similar to how months ago Gooch suggested that had McIlroy won the Masters, his win wouldn’t have been a full one (due to many LIV golfers missing from the field), this time a fan suggested that the Northern Irishman’s win this week too came with an “Asterisk,” since the Zurich Classic win was not an individual event and instead a team event, LIV Golf’s USP-something many Tour players have dissed in the past.

Since 2017, team games have replaced the 1938 format of the Zurich Classic. That means that only for the last seven years has the event seen two winners. And if this one fan had his way, that would definitely not be the case, not just for Rory McIlroy but for the other winners too, like Cam Smith and Jonas Blixt (the first winners of the team event). “I’ve never considered this a PGAT victory. Not a knock at Rory.”

On paper, a win is a win. The PGA Tour recognized it too. In fact, even Sam Snead, the record holder for the highest PGA Tour wins, has five team wins in his 82 victories. Tiger Woods is tied with him for most wins, though he has no team victories. This is something Chamblee also pointed out in his tweet.

Fans implied that Snead’s number and all the others who have a team win as part of their Tour wins should have their tally lowered because of it. And seeing the format played (alternate shots and fourballs), no one golfer has full ownership over the play; hence, perhaps the fans’ thoughts are justified.

“I know this technically counts as a PGA Tour victory… But is it *really*?” asked one fan, while another wrote, “Except 2-man team events don’t count.”

McIlroy and Lowry shot four rounds of 25 under 263 and played the extra hole, making a par putt to win the event. However, this fan, who also didn’t think the team win should have counted as one for each of the pros, wasn’t particularly impressed. Taking a dig at both the Tour and the pro, he claimed that the product that the PGA Tour provided was no longer great. “This was not a very impressive win. This really shouldn’t count as an individual PGA win, but it’s Rory and the media and PGA nerds something, especially after the showing in Australia in LIV and the slumping rankings on the PGA Tour.”

Did you also think that Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry’s victory in the Zurich Classic shouldn’t be considered an individual feat? While the PGA Tour may argue against it, the fans certainly would not!