THEY say victory in sport is all about ‘Believin’ in yourself, and Irish golf stars Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry showed that confidence and more after taking to the stage for a well-received rendition of the Journey classic.
Celebrating their victory at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, they held their nerve to narrowly beat their American rivals Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey.
Towards the end of the fourth round, Lowry capitalised on a superb chip on the 18th green by McIlroy to sink a birdie putt, extending the contest as they joined Trainer and Ramey on 25 under at TPC Louisiana.
The American pair 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.
With Ramey sending his second shot on to a road, Trainer was unable to reach the green.
This gave McIlroy and and Lowry the edge, despite McIlroy finding sand on his second shot.
With Lowry missing a putt for par, they needed Trainer to narrowly miss his own putt to confirm their win.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” McIlroy told CBS Sports about securing his 25th career PGA Tour win.
“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.”
