Why Rory McIlroy’s Master Winner is Shane Lowry’s “The Strangeest Day of All Time”

At Sunday Masters, only the first player to hug great with a giant bear was his closest friend Shane Lowry on the PGA Tour Shane Lowry.

So far, their team wins at the 2024 Zurich Classic, their exhibition at the 2024 Olympic Games and a full-scale episode, their friendship has been well documented and won on their team. But their connection stretched for about twenty years. Consider that when Lowry won the Irish Open in 2009, McIlroy waited for him behind the 18th Green. So McIlroy's 2025 Masters starts with Lowry – they played a 3-stroke match with another close friend, Tommy Fleetwood, and ended with him.

Of course, Lowry was ecstatic and allowed his friend to win the Masters to end his major training drought to end the professional grand slam. That's all true. But it was a particularly strange day in Lowry's own career.

“Yes, honestly, it’s the weirdest day ever for me,” Laurie said Wednesday on the eve of the couple’s Zurich classic title defense.

After all, Lowry is not only a participant in the competition, but he's been mixing the sounds all the time. Lowry stood out at the Masters Saturday. The back-to-back bogey of 17 and 18 made his final round of quest for the green jacket even harder. While Lowry is happy to be called McIlroy’s friend, it is understandably exhausted by reporters who long to chase the subject at this particular moment.

“No, I'm not going to stand here and talk about Rory for 10 minutes,” he said in the media. “I'm trying to win the game, too.”

Lowry's Sunday started a promising start, with a birdie of 2 points. Bogey 3 years old. Doubles 5. Bogey, 6 years old. He watched Justin Rose as he brought together Under 66 shots in a day of play, adding to his inner turmoil. Lowry's defender nine points was even worse: four bogeys and two 81 points, the second highest score of the day. The result was to get him out of the top 40, even as McIlroy endured his own roller coaster, putting him in a state of shock.

“I’m not here [the tournament] I've been walking around looking at the rankings for a long time, and then coming in, I have to deal with my disappointment first. “I actually went to the locker room for about 15 minutes, just to gather my own ideas, to look at my own golf, to see what he was doing there. ”

But by the time McIlroy sent Rose, who birded the first playoff hole, Lowry abandoned his pursuit: he was ecstatic to his friends.

“I'm happy for him. I know that the last time he's in the past is definitely the last decade since the Grand Slam,” Laurie said. “The pressure on him – not just one person, but everyone outside is tough and he has to be very disappointed. So it's so cool to see him do it.

“I think what everyone saw on the 18th green that day was just pure relief. I'm so happy for him.”

“I can hardly get up”

McIlroy and Lowry landed in New Orleans Tuesday night, the former wearing worse after a whirlwind celebration trip, took him to London and then to Northern Ireland and back to Florida, and he woke up on Monday, on Monday.

“I can hardly get out of bed; I feel sad,” McIlroy said. Celebrating the achievements of this range has some consequences and inevitably disappointing. He added: “But obviously it's an amazing day, but I'm so excited, I'm so happy to be with my man, we look forward to a great week and try to defend.”

Hearing McIlroy's speech, despite skipping last week's big signature event, the legacy of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), he always intends to respect that commitment. Laurie is not quite sure; admits that when he watched McIlroy date fate in Augusta, he is not sure if the plan will change suddenly.

“I said to the caddie on Augusta's 15th hole, obviously I've done it [competing to win] So I'm looking at the rankings, I want [Rory] Probably doubled at 13, I said to Darren, “Whatever happens to the next few holes, I think we'll do a great job and let him go to New Orleans.” No Going his way, I don't think he wants to be [at the Zurich]I wonder if Have done it Going his way, he wants to go somewhere else. But I'm glad he's here. ”

At some point during Sunday’s celebration, Lowry raised the topic.

“One of the things Sean said to me that night, like, 'Do you still want to play Zurich?'” McIlroy said. “I said, ‘Absolutely.’ We defended a championship, which was fun for me.

“I don’t think I have to play golf any more in my life”

The duo had a celebratory tuning this week, and they quit last year’s victory. Now, there are celebrations for everyone in 2025 – not only because of McIlroy’s Green Jack victory, but because the world of golf will return to Royal Prownush to get his own crowning achievements at the 2019 Open.

“I think Rory's goal is – who cares?” Laurie joked. “But no, it would be incredible to go back to Porthush. Rory went back, because the Masters champion will now lighten my calories again, so I'm very happy with it. It's going to be a great game.”

This will be a lower week than the last. The odds of each week are lower than the last one. “I don't think I have to play golf any more in my life,” he said. But McIlroy called Zurich the “perfect championship” with a “perfect atmosphere” to get on his return.

And with the perfect companion.

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