Shane Lowry might’ve let out an expletive when the hooter sounded, calling a halt to proceedings with Rory McIlroy and he on their way to the 18th green, but he quickly saw the funny side of it when he realised that he wouldn’t even have to bring his clubs with him when play resumed.
That’s because Rory was on the dancefloor with an eagle putt to come, and Shane had already dumped his second shot in the water. 90 minutes later, after the electrical storm had passed, they returned to the hole where they’d sealed their playoff victory 12 months ago, for what they hoped would be one final stroke on day three of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
And just one it was, as the downhill 30-footer’s line was perfect, and the eagle landed, leapfrogging them into a temporary share of the lead at -22.
Rory with the walk-off eagle‼️@McIlroyRory and @ShaneLowryGolf are tied for the lead @Zurich_Classic.
📺 CBS pic.twitter.com/mPoY075EVw
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 26, 2025
“I knew I’d hit it with the right speed. It always felt like it was the right speed. It was just a matter of — as long as it didn’t take too much of the right-to-left at the end, which it didn’t, it was perfect,” McIlroy said afterwards. “I wasn’t concerned so much [about getting the speed right on greens that had been heavily saturated during the thunderstorm] because I’d say the first two-thirds of the putt was sort of downhill, so there was never really concern of getting the ball to the hole. It was just a matter of picking the right line and just starting it on that.”
Unfortunately for the defending champions, the softened course and calm, sunny conditions that followed the storm made for ideal scoring and 36-hole leaders Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin made the most of it, playing the back nine in five-under to move to -27 and matching Lowry and McIlroy’s 61 to move to -27, with the Irish pair also overtaken by Jake Knapp and Frankie Capan III, and Ryo Hisatsune and Takumi Kanaya who each posted -24, and Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard and Isaiah Salinda Kevin Celo on -23.
Having squandered an excellent score in the foursomes on day two, a fast start was needed in the second fourball session and they duly delivered with McIlroy birdieing the first and Lowry following suit on two, five and then chipping in for eagle on the seventh. It was McIlroy’s turn again on eight, and the birdie moved them to -6 for the day at the turn.
Chip-in eagle for the lads! ☘️@ShaneLowryGolf and @McIlroyRory are two shots off the lead @Zurich_Classic.
📺 @PGATOURLIVE pic.twitter.com/0iW7RrB6sU
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 26, 2025
They continued to dovetail nicely on the back, with McIlroy birdies on 10, 11 and 15 and Lowry adding another on 13, but a costly bogey on 17 after both had missed the green to the right and left themselves extremely difficult pitch shots, but the eagle at the last made amends.
“Yeah, I feel like we played pretty well today, I think,” Lowry said. “There was a lot of holes where both of us had chances. Yeah, we went out and we did what we had to do. Look, we knew we were going to have to go out and shoot a really low score today. There’s not much wind out there, and the course is fairly gettable, and in four-balls you want to be shooting at least 10-under. I was pretty happy to have Rory go out and eagle the last there. It makes dinner taste nicer and kind of puts us in a great position going into tomorrow.”
McIlroy admitted that it was easy to extrapolate himself from the thoughts of his remaining eagle putt when they took shelter in the clubhouse during the break in play.
“I think the secret is not thinking about it in those 90 minutes,” he said. “We had a bit of lunch and we were watching some highlights from last year and talking about a bunch of — where we’re going to go for dinner tonight. The last thing on my mind during the delay was the putt, and then once I got back out there, I sort of concentrated on it and made sure I did what I needed to do and just a bonus for it to go in.”
With the format returning to foursomes once again for the final round, they are still very much in it but will likely need to combine for a round in the mid-60s at worst if they’re to become the first back-to-back winners of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans since its switch to the paired format in 2017.
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