On Masters Sunday, when Rory McIlroy neared the end of his tearful, triumphant walk, it felt only right that the first player to great him with a giant bear hug was his closest friend on the PGA Tour, Shane Lowry.
Their friendship has been well documented by this point, most recently and visibly in their team victory at the 2024 Zurich Classic, their showing at the 2024 Olympic Games and a Full Swing episode highlighting the bond. But their connection stretches back some two decades; consider that when Lowry won the Irish Open as an amateur in 2009, McIlroy was there waiting for him behind the 18th green. And so it was only right that McIlroy’s 2025 Masters began with Lowry — they played the par-3 contest with Tommy Fleetwood, another close friend — and ended with him, too.
Lowry was, of course, ecstatic for his friend to win the Masters, to put an end to his major-championship drought, to finish off the career grand slam. That was all real. But it came on a particularly strange day in Lowry’s own professional career.
“Yeah, honestly it was the weirdest day ever for me,” Lowry said on Wednesday, some 10 days later, on the eve of the pair’s Zurich Classic title defense.
Lowry hadn’t just been a tournament participant, after all — he’d been right in the mix. And on Masters Saturday, Lowry had come off the course hot; back-to-back bogeys at 17 and 18 had made his final-round pursuit of the green jacket that much tougher. While Lowry is perfectly happy to be known as McIlroy’s friend, he was understandably snippy with reporters eager to chase the subject in this particular moment.
“No, I’m not going to stand here and talk about Rory for 10 minutes,” he said in a press. “I’m trying to win the tournament, as well.”
Lowry’s Sunday got off to a promising start, with par at 1 and birdie at 2. But his chances at the green jacket only plummeted from there. Bogey at 3. Double at 5. Bogey at 6. A group ahead, he watched as Justin Rose put together the round of the day, a six-under 66, adding to his inner turmoil. Lowry’s back nine was even worse: four bogeys and a double to finish off an 81, the second-highest score of the day. The result dropped him outside the top 40 and left him in a state of shock even as McIlroy endured a rollercoaster round of his own.
“I was out of [the tournament] for a long time and I was watching the leaderboard going around, then come in, and I have to deal with my own disappointments first,” Lowry said. “I actually went to the locker room for like 15 minutes just to gather my own thoughts, watched a bit of the golf, watched what he was doing out there.”
But by the time McIlroy dispatched Rose with a birdie on the first playoff hole, Lowry had left his own pursuits behind: he was single-mindedly ecstatic for his friend.
“I’m just happy for him. I know what he’s been through the last, certainly the last 10 years since the Grand Slam was on,” Lowry said. “The pressure that’s been put on him — not so much by himself but by everyone outside has been pretty tough and he’s had to deal with a lot of disappointment. So it was pretty cool to see him do that.
“I think what everyone saw on the 18th green that day was just pure relief. I was very happy for him.”
‘I could barely get out of bed’
McIlroy and Lowry touched down in New Orleans on Tuesday night, the former some the worse for wear after a whirlwind celebratory tour that took him to London, then to Northern Ireland and back home to Florida, where he woke up on Monday feeling decidedly under the weather.
“I could barely get out of bed; I was feeling that bad,” McIlroy said. Celebrating an achievement of this magnitude comes with some consequences and, inevitably, with a letdown. “But obviously it’s been an amazing few days, but I’m excited and I’m happy to be here with my man, and we’re looking forward to a great week and trying to defend,” he added.
To hear McIlroy tell it, he always fully intended to honor this commitment — despite skipping last week’s big-money Signature Event, the RBC Heritage. Lowry was less certain; admitted that, as he was watching McIlroy’s date with destiny at Augusta, he wasn’t sure if plans would suddenly change.
“I said to my caddie on the 15th hole at Augusta, obviously I was done [competing to win] so I was watching the leaderboard, and I think [Rory] had probably just made double on 13, and I said to Darren, ‘No matter what happens the next few holes, I think we’re going to do well to get him to New Orleans.’ If things didn’t go his way, I don’t think he’d want to be [at the Zurich], and I thought if things did go his way, he’d want to be somewhere else. But I’m happy he’s here.”
Sometime during Sunday’s festivities, Lowry broached the subject.
“That was one of the things Shane said to me that night, like, ‘Are you still wanting to come and play Zurich?'” McIlroy said. “And I said, ‘Absolutely.’ We’re defending a title. We had so much fun last year here. Obviously it’s important for me to honor that commitment.”
‘I don’t think I’ll have to ever play a harder round of golf in my life’
There’s a celebratory tinge to this week for the duo, who return off last year’s win. There’s a celebratory air to all of 2025 now, too — not just because of McIlroy’s green-jacket triumph but because the golf world will return to Royal Portrush for the Open, site of his own crowning achievement at the 2019 Open.
“I think Rory’s goals are — who cares anymore?” Lowry quipped. “But no, going back to Portrush is going to be incredible. Rory going back as the Masters champion now is going to take a little bit of heat off me again, so I’m pretty happy with that. It’s going to be a great tournament.”
This will be a lower-pressure week than last; in all likelihood every week will be lower pressure than last. “I don’t think I’ll have to ever play a harder round of golf in my life,” he said. But McIlroy called the Zurich the “perfect tournament” with the “perfect atmosphere” to stage his return.
And alongside the perfect partner.
