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Coming into his first-ever appearance in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Rory McIlroy had recorded just one top-10 finish in eight starts on the PGA Tour in 2024, that being a solo third at the Valero Texas Open in early April. He also hadn’t won an event in the United States, the CJ Cup, since October 2022.
But that futility streak came to an end on April 28 as McIlroy and Shane Lowry came from behind to win the PGA Tour’s lone team event in a playoff over Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey.
With the win, McIlroy, who agreed to play the event for the first time following a “drunken lunch” with Lowry at last year’s Ryder Cup, hit a milestone as one of just 26 players with 25 PGA Tour victories. The four-time major champion broke out of a tie with Gary Player and Dustin Johnson and now stands alongside Macdonald Smith, Tommy Armour and Johnny Miller.
The win also marked Lowry’s third PGA Tour win and his first victory on U.S. soil since the 2015 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.
Rory McIlroy & Shane Lowry Came From Behind to Win the Zurich Classic in a Playoff
Following a third-round 64 under fourball format rules, McIlroy and Lowry entered Sunday’s final round two back of the lead. Playing under foursome rules for the final 18, otherwise known as alternate-shot, the duo got off to a bit of a slow start, making bogey on two of the first three holes, one of which was at least offset by a birdie at the second.
Following three straight pars, McIlroy and Lowry birdied four of the next five to get themselves back in contention. After four straight pars on Nos. 12-15, Rory found trouble off the tee on the 16th as he found a fairway bunker. But after a brilliant shot from Lowry, McIlroy drained a 20-foot birdie putt to get his team into a tie for the lead.
However, following a bogey at the par-3 17th, they needed to make birdie at the par-5 finishing hole to tie Ramey and Trainer, who’d been finished for quite some time after posting a 9-under round of 63. And that’s exactly what they did.
Following a fantastic wedge shot from McIlroy, Lowry finished off the birdie putt to send the action at TPC Louisiana to extra holes. But just one hole was needed.
Replaying the 18th, McIlroy and Lowry made an easy par and then watched Trainer miss his par effort, thus ending the tournament. Both McIlroy and Lowry received just over $1.286 million in earnings, as well as 400 FedEx Cup points each.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” McIlroy said afterward. “We’ve had an awesome week here in New Orleans. … It feels like it’s just a bonus to win at the end, but [it] couldn’t be better to have this man alongside me to get a PGA Tour win together.”
McIlroy Is Now Tied for 23rd On the PGA Tour’s All-Time Wins List
Rory McIlroy is now one of just 26 players to record 25 victories on the PGA Tour. And while he only needs a few more to crack the top 20, he still sits 57 behind the all-time leaders, Sam Snead and Tiger Woods, who sit atop the list with 82 wins each.
Here’s a look at the list as it currently stands.
| All-Time PGA Tour Wins | ||
|---|---|---|
| Rank | Player | Wins |
| T1 | Sam Snead | 82 |
| T1 | Tiger Woods | 82 |
| 3 | Jack Nicklaus | 73 |
| 4 | Ben Hogan | 64 |
| 5 | Arnold Palmer | 62 |
| 6 | Byron Nelson | 52 |
| 7 | Billy Casper | 51 |
| T8 | Walter Hagen | 45 |
| T8 | Phil Mickelson | 45 |
| T10 | Cary Middlecoff | 39 |
| T10 | Tom Watson | 39 |
| 12 | Gene Sarazen | 38 |
| 13 | Lloyd Mangrum | 36 |
| 14 | Vijay Singh | 34 |
| 15 | Jimmy Demaret | 31 |
| 16 | Horton Smith | 30 |
| T17 | Harry Cooper | 29 |
| T17 | Gene Littler | 29 |
| T17 | Lee Trevino | 29 |
| T20 | Leo Diegel | 28 |
| T20 | Paul Runyan | 28 |
| 22 | Henry Picard | 26 |
| T23 | Macdonald Smith | 25 |
| T23 | Tommy Armour | 25 |
| T23 | Johnny Miller | 25 |
| T23 | Rory McIlroy | 25 |
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