Shane Lowry had a huge smile on his face when he reckoned Zurich Classic of New Orleans winning partner Rory McIlory is a better golfer than a singer. Lowry was commenting on the vocal qualities of McIlroy in returning to competition at this week’s 21st hosting of the Wells Fargo Championship in North Carolina.
Lowry and McIlroy combined last month to become the first Irish winners of the Zurich Classic, winning in a play-off on the host TPC Louisiana course. The win was McIlroy’s 25th victory toast on the PGA Tour while it was a long overdue raising of the glass on US soil for Lowry, winning for only a second time Stateside in nine years and his third PGA Tour counting triumph since capturing the 2019 Open Championship.
Lowry revealed he headed straight home on Sunday night from New Orleans to his Bears Club residence in Florida before he and McIlroy got together on the Wednesday night when they celebrated their team success with a ‘night on the town’.
“He’s a better golfer than singer thankfully for him”, said Lowry when asked his thoughts on the singing talents of the World No. 2. The good times weren’t limited to McIlroy’s post-win karaoke session, which Lowry said McIlroy was “blindsided” by. The video of the world’s second-ranked player belting “Don’t Stop Believin’” quickly went viral.
“I couldn’t believe he was doing it, to be honest,” Lowry said. “I was just standing on the side. He kind of got blindsided into doing it, so fair play to him.” McIlroy, Lowry sing ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ after winning Zurich Classic
We remember the Irish golfing pair had decided to team up at a “boozy lunch” after last year’s Ryder Cup and more libations were involved in the aftermath of their win. “I went home on Sunday night. He had to go somewhere else on Monday morning,” said Lowry, who qualified for this week via the Aon Next 10.
“We met up on Wednesday night. We had a pretty good night Wednesday night. We drank some nice stuff and had a good time and we celebrated our win, which you should do. I’ve been playing (professionally) 16 years and I’ve only won seven times. You’ve got to celebrate the good times, too.”
Lowry’s no stranger to tackling this week’s Wells Fargo Championship and says he’s looking forward to the challenge of the Quail Hollow course. “I’ve probably been a little bit hard on myself the few previous weeks, and obviously the few previous weeks didn’t go well for him, either,” said Lowry.
“I feel like we played golf with a a lot more freedom that week and I feel like it’s a lesson for the two of us for the rest of the season, to go and play golf how we played that week in New Orleans. I feel like if we can do that we both can be dangerous in the big tournaments. I just think the whole week of playing golf with a smile on your face, playing golf with a little bit of freedom goes a long way in this game. I think we both learned a lot. That’s how I feel anyway.”
Of course, Lowry had the chance to win on the PGA Tour earlier this both at events in Florida first at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches (T4) and then at the Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard (third). He finished well back at the Masters, as well, and near the bottom of the leaderboard at the RBC Heritage in the two weeks preceding the Zurich Classic, as well.
“When you’re not shooting the scores you feel like you should be shooting, it becomes difficult,” he said. “Yeah, I’ve just been hard on myself, the days were getting tougher and tougher and yeah, New Orleans sorted that.”
