McIlroy and Lowry both claimed their first wins on the PGA Tour this season; Runners-up Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey had three-hour wait for play-off after finishing round; watch the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and all of the majors in 2024 exclusively live on Sky Sports
Monday 29 April 2024 15:59, UK
Irish pair Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry came through a play-off to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
At the end of the fourth round, Lowry made the most of a superb chip onto the 18th green by McIlroy by sinking a birdie putt, extending the contest as they joined Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey on 25 under at TPC Louisiana.
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 onto 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 birdie, they needed Trainer to narrowly miss his own par putt to confirm their win - McIlroy's 25th career PGA Tour win.
McIlroy and Lowry began the day two shots off the lead. They opened the round with Lowry's tee shot into the woods on the right side of the hole, and they bogeyed two of their first three holes before beginning their charge on the seventh, where McIlroy made the first of four birdie putts over the next five holes.
McIlroy had two mis-hits down the stretch that could have been costly, leaving an approach shot well short of the green on the par-four 13th and hitting short into a fairway bunker on the short par-four 16th.
Lowry chipped to about 10 feet and McIlroy saved par on 13. On 16, Lowry found the left side of the green with his approach shot from the sand and McIlroy sank a right-breaking birdie putt to lift his team into a tie for first at 25-under.
The Irishmen bogeyed 17 after Lowry's faded tee shot landed in the gallery right of the green and McIlroy's chip over the ridge of a bunker ran past the hole.
That meant they would have to have a birdie on 18 to force a playoff. They got it, starting with McIlroy's clutch, booming tee shot into the water-lined fairway.
Before leaving the TPC Louisiana grounds, McIlroy and Lowry walked on stage while popular local cover band Bag of Donuts was performing a post-tournament concert. The band gave McIlroy a microphone, and he serenaded the crowd, singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believin.'"
"The reason that Shane and I both started to play golf is because we thought it was fun at some stage in our life," McIlroy said. "Reinjecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week, it can always help."
Both McIlroy and Lowry said they will return next year to defend their title.
"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."
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