Rory McIlroy may have been announced as the Masters champion on the first tee at the Zurich Classic but he and Shane Lowry have work to do if they are to become the first team to retain their title at TPC Louisiana.
The pair carded an eight-under 64 in the Thursday four ball format to lie six shots behind Isaiah Salinda and and Kevin Velo who roared to the top with a course record 58, one ahead of the Hojgaard twins.
McIlroy and Lowry had initially made a strong start to their title defence as they raced to eight-under through fifteen holes with the pair dovetailing nicely.
Lowry came in with three birdies in the first four holes and four in total on the front nine before McIlroy played his part with a birdie, eagle start to their back nine. Lowry birdied their 13th before both made bogey at 15 after finding the water from the tee.
“Yeah, I was glad they remembered The Players as well in there,” quipped McIlroy about his first tee honour. “It seems like a distant memory at this point. Look, very nice. I could get used to it.”
McIlroy had a busy few days in the lead up to the tournament having visited his hometown of Holywood to celebrate his grand slam victory and he returned Stateside with a cold, but he looked like he shook it off by the back nine.
At six shots behind, the pair have a mountain to climb in the foursomes on Friday and Saturday – where they will alternate golf ball depending on who is hitting into the green – to give themselves a chance on Sunday.
“Shane joked I could have got a couple of extra hours in bed if I wanted to,” McIlroy said. “But yeah, I played a bit better coming in.
“We felt like we left a few shots out there, but we were just saying the two foursomes days on Friday and Sunday are the important days in this tournament, and it’s important for us to obviously post a good score tomorrow [Friday].”
Lowry added: “It was one of those days where you do want to go low, but like Rory mentioned, I think the two foursomes days in this tournament are huge.”
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