Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry’s stout defence of their Zurich Classic of New Orleans title was very much alive until the 66th hole of 72, but an untimely bogey on 13 sapped all of their energy and they limped home to finish T12 as Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin held on to secure a one-stroke victory over the Højgaard twins.
Starting the final round five back in the final-round foursomes format, the defending champions couldn’t afford any slip ups and reached the turn at -2 thanks to two front-nine birdies, and had drawn to within three when the hooter sounded halting play for a 90-minute period for the second day in succession.
While they returned from Saturday’s break in play for McIlroy to hole a 30-footer for eagle on the 18th, this time, they couldn’t get any momentum going and the bogey on 13 was followed by two more on 15 and 17 before they rounded out the week with a birdie at the last.
“Yeah, it’s been a fun week,” McIlroy said afterwards. “I think when we went back out after the delay, we felt like we still had a good chance, and we didn’t make birdie on 11, and then we bogeyed 13 again for the second time this week.
“Yeah, just didn’t really have any momentum from when we started back up again, and it was difficult to just sort of get anything. We noticed the greens got pretty fast and pretty firm after the delay, too, so got a little tougher.
“Overall it’s been a good week. It’s always good to team up with this man. We’ve had fun.”
Lowry didn’t allow the disappointing finish to dampen his enthusiasm for the week and his enjoyment of defending a title with a good friend by his side.
“Look, it’s nice,” he said. “Obviously we came here — I was happy Rory came. It was nice to come and try and defend. I think we did a good job for the most part. I think we played all right, just today nothing really happened for us, and then after the delay we just went — everything that could go wrong did go wrong. I had a great week. I’m happy my man came here this week, and we had a great time, and it was fun.”
For McIlroy, it’s time to take a well-earned week off before returning to action at the Truist Championship the week ahead of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.
“Yeah, I’ve got to just take a little bit of time here,” he explained. “It’s nice to have a week off, and yeah, reset and try to get some practice in. I feel like it’s like two practice weeks coming up in a way with next week at home and then Truist, as well, in some ways.
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to a couple days off and then sort of kicking the feet up and trying to recharge the batteries a little bit.”
Novak and Griffin struggled to get any real momentum going themselves, and the three-stroke 54-hole leader reached the 17th tee tied with playing partners Jake Knapp and Frankie Capan III and with Rasmus and Nicolai Højgaard one back playing 18.
An untimely hook from Capan found the water left of the green on the par-3, and Novak’s swinging draw looked as though it could end up in the same pond when it landed on the green and went trundling towards the back edge and steep runoff before coming to rest just short.
Making the most of the stroke of good fortune, Griffin then rolled in an unlikely 35-footer from the fringe to open up a two-stroke lead.
Up ahead, the Højgaards birdied the par-5 18th, but Griffin and Novak could afford to play conservatively, laying up and making a two-putt par for each of the men to claim a first ever PGA Tour win.
It was particularly pleasing for Novak who lost out in a playoff to Justin Thomas at last week’s RBC Heritage.
“Yeah, I played well last week down the stretch, which was good to look back on,” he recalled. “That was a positive. There have been times down the stretch where I’ve had chances and haven’t played particularly well. So I took some positives into this week.
“You never really know when you’re going to get your first one, but we put ourselves in position again. Luckily I had Ben there for me today, and he carried down the stretch. So exciting to get our first win together.”
Leave a comment