Dinner tasting 'nicer' for Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy after eagle putt on 18 at Zurich
New Orleans is known for its culinary delights, but after a closing eagle in the third round of the PGA Tour's Zurich Classic, Shane Lowry said the local delicacies were destined to hit his palate even better on Saturday night.
After getting stopped for a 90-minute weather delay, Lowry and partner Rory McIlroy finished off a 61 in style as the 2025 Masters champion rolled in an eagle putt. That put the duo at 22 under for the tournament and put them near the top of the leaderboard heading into the final round.
McIlroy made the eagle on 18, but Lowry posted a pair of birdies and an eagle on the front nine as the team from Northern Ireland climbed back into contention.
"I feel like we played pretty well today," Lowry said. "There was a lot of holes where both of us had chances. Yeah, we went out and we did what we had to do. Look, we knew we were going to have to go out and shoot a really low score today. There's not much wind out there, and the course is fairly gettable, and in four-balls you want to be shooting at least 10-under.
"I was pretty happy to have Rory go out and eagle the last there. It makes dinner taste nicer and kind of puts us in a great position going into tomorrow."
Rory McIlroy didn't think about putt during delay
Having so much time to think about the eagle putt didn't faze McIlroy, who said the key to those situations is detaching from the moment.
"I think the secret is not thinking about it in those 90 minutes. We had a bit of lunch and we were watching some highlights from last year and talking about a bunch of … where we're going to go for dinner tonight," he said. "The last thing on my mind during the delay was the putt, and then once I got back out there, I sort of concentrated on it and made sure I did what I needed to do and just a bonus for it to go in."
A year ago, Lowry and McIlroy needed a birdie at the 18th hole to finish with a total of 25-under 263 and force a playoff with Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer, who finished their round two hours and 59 minutes earlier after shooting a tournament-tying 9-under 63 in the alternate-shot format employed in the final round. Lowry and McIlroy won on the first playoff hole after making par.
Although the pair has eaten at a few of the same restaurants, they're not going crazy with superstitions this week, and why would they? McIlroy's game is in fine form of late, as he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Players Championship and then the Masters. He has pocketed more than $ 13 million in prize money, statistically has been one of the 10 best putters in the game, and leads the PGA Tour in scoring average.
"We're staying in a different hotel. We've eaten in a couple of the same restaurants. But no, it's just another week," Lowry said.
"As long as we keep having fun out there," added McIlroy, who was a bit under the weather coming into the event, "that'll be the best way for us to get the best out of ourselves."
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Rory McIlroy, Shane Lowry shine at PGA Tour's Zurich Classic
