Rory McIlroy has another occasion on his timetable for 2024, and Shane Lowry will go along with him. The European Ryder Cup stalwarts will contend as colleagues in the Zurich Exemplary of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., on April 25-28.
Furthermore, evidently, everything began with a boozy lunch.
"I asked him [to play]," McIlroy told GOLF.com on Monday. "You realize it was truly, we had this truly tanked lunch after the Ryder Cup last year, and I said later, 'You want to play the Zurich together?' And we were like, better believe it, how about we make it happen."
This will be McIlroy's introduction at the Zurich Exemplary, which has been a two-man group occasion beginning around 2017. Lowry has played in the Zurich multiple times. He's missed the cut two times (once when it was individual stroke play) and has completed T28 and thirteenth. Lowry played with Padraig Harrington, who is presently on the PGA Visit Champions, in 2018 and 2019, and he was with Ian Poulter, who is currently at LIV Golf, in 2022.
"So I was like, 'Better believe it, assuming that you are hoping to play?'" McIlroy said. "What's more, I've never played, so I'm anticipating it."
Coincidentally, if a "plastered lunch" with McIlroy and Lowry sounds natural, you could have learned about that as of now (it is a similar one to (expect to be this). It was remembered for an extensive meeting with Paul Kimmage of the Irish Free, who plunked down with the Irish stars after Europe's 2023 Ryder Cup win.
As indicated by the Kimmage piece, not long after they got back to the U.S., McIlroy stopped by to Lowry's home for lunch, which incorporated a jug of wine. In the long run, they had different visitors: Luke Donald and (sit tight for it) Michael Jordan.
"Rory, Luke and MJ lounging around discussing the Ryder Cup," Lowry told Kimmage. [Laughs.] "… Not actually the way in which I imagined the festivals."
Was that a similar lunch McIlroy was alluding to? Assuming this is the case, we'll call that one useful business lunch get-together: feasting with the GOAT and a Zurich Exemplary organization.
McIlroy's presence is a major get for the New Orleans competition.
With its new organization, the Zurich has had a mix of enormous name groups and a few additional exceptional couples. Any individual who is qualified can pick their accomplice, regardless of whether they aren't qualified themselves (similarly for however long they are PGA Visit individuals or get a support's exception). Buddies Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay have been one of the more elegant pairings in previous years (they won quite a while back), and in 2022, Bill Haas asked his father, 68-year-old Jay Haas, to collaborate with him. They tied for 36th.
Last year, John Daly and David Duval collaborated as support's exceptions and missed the cut, and siblings Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick fought in any case tied for nineteenth. Scratch Tough and Davis Riley are the reigning champs.
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