Irish pair Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry made it through the play-offs to win the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.
Late in the fourth round, Lowry took advantage of a superb chip on the 18th green from McIlroy by sinking a birdie putt, extending the contest by joining Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey on 25 under at TPC Louisiana.
The American pair had been among the early starters, moving up 26 places on the leaderboard with a round of 63 that included seven birdies on the back nine, but the nearly three-hour wait to see if their score would hold up saw them enter in ranking. the playoffs look rusty.
And after Ramey fired his second shot left and onto a route, Trainer failed in his effort to reach the green.
This gave Ryder Cup teammates McIlroy and Lowry the lead, although the latter found sand with his second shot, but after Lowry missed a putt for birdie, they needed Trainer to miss narrowly scoring his own putt to confirm their victory – McIlroy’s 25th career putt. PGA Tour victory.
McIlroy and Lowry said they would return next year to defend their titles.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” McIlroy said CBS Sports. “We’ve had an awesome week here in New Orleans. The crowds have been absolutely incredible, to benefit from the support we’ve had there. We’ve had so much fun doing it and it’s just a bonus of win the Championship.
“It couldn’t be better than doing it with this man by my side.”
Lowry added: “It’s awesome. It was really needed. At the beginning of the week we felt like we could make a big jump for the FedEx Cup, let’s get 400 points each and that’s what we did.
“I feel a little bad taking them because Rory carried me, but I’ll take them.”
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