Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry came through a play-off to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana.
At the end of the fourth round, playing Foursomes, Lowry made the most of a superb chip on to the 18th green by McIlroy by sinking a birdie putt, extending the contest as they joined Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey on 25-under.
Trainer and Ramey had been among the early starters, powering 26 places up the leaderboard with a round of 63 that included seven birdies on the back nine, but the near three-hour wait to see if their score would hold up saw them come into the play-off looking rusty.
And after Ramey pulled his second shot left and on to a road, Trainer came up short in his effort to reach the green.
That gave Ryder Cup team-mates McIlroy and Lowry the advantage despite the latter having found 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 win – McIlroy’s 25th career PGA Tour win.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” McIlroy said on CBS Sports. “We’ve had an awesome week here in New Orleans. The crowds have been absolutely amazing, to get the support we’ve had out there. We’ve had so much fun while doing it and it’s just a bonus to win at the end.
“It couldn’t be better than to do it with this man alongside me.”
Lowry added: “It’s great. It felt much-needed. Coming into the week we felt we could do with a big jump for the FedEx Cup, let’s get 400 points each and that’s what we’ve done.
“I feel a little bit bad taking them because Rory carried me, but I’m taking them.”
This victory was McIlroy’s 25th in 247 starts on the PGA Tour and he has now had at least one win in each of his last seven seasons on Tour. His last win was at the 2023 Genesis Scottish Open.
Lowry has now won three times in 174 starts, he last won at the 2019 Open Championship.
Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard closed with a 64 to finish third at 24-under.
Third-round leaders and former BYU teammates Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn (T4/-23) double bogeyed on the par-3 17th and posted a final-round 72 to finish tied for fourth at 23-under.
