McIlory and Lowry rally for Zurich Title | The Sunday Swing

The Sunday Swing 
April 28th, 2024 

Welcome back to another edition of the Sunday Swing presented by 2nd Swing Golf. This week in the world of professional golf, the PGA Tour was in New Orleans for the only team event on tour in the Zurich Classic, and the LPGA Tour was in Los Angeles for the JM Eagle LA Championship. 

The Zurich Classic - Tournament History 

The Zurich Classic originated 86 years ago back in 1938. Held at TPC Louisiana in Avondale (a suburb of New Orleans), it became a team event in 2017. Playing two days of best ball and two days of alternate shot, fans are able to see this style of golf for the only time outside of a Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup. As Zurich celebrates 20 years as the title sponsor this week, they hope to continue to grow the tournament and having the likes of Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Will Zalatoris, Patrick Cantlay and Shane Lowry in the field should help their cause. 

Designed by the legendary Pete Dye, TPC Louisiana is a great setup for a team style event. Last year we saw Davis Riley and Nick Hardy pick up each of their first PGA Tour victories as they set the tournament scoring record at 30-under par. While the course does contain a lot of water, there isn’t much defense outside of wind that can prevent the players from going low given the unique format. Typically we see scores reach numbers like 10-under or more during the best ball format compared to alternate shot, which is much more difficult to go low and usually holds the lowest scores to somewhere around 4 or 5-under on a good day. It is fairly common for fellow countrymen to tee it up together and this week was no exception. We had the Irish duo of Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, a couple of different Canadian duos, plenty of American duos, and even three pairs of brothers including the Fitzpatrick brothers. The most recent five winners of the Zurich Classic are as follows: 

2024 - Rory McIlroy & Shane Lowry (-25)
2023 - Nick Hardy & Davis Riley (-30)
2022 - Patrick Cantlay & Xander Schauffele (-29)
2021 - Marc Leishman & Cameron Smith (-20)
2019 - Ryan Palmer & Jon Rahm (-26) 

The Big Swing 

This week the Big Swing belongs to Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry. Entering the week, neither of these guys had won on tour in quite a while. For McIlroy, it was last year at the Scottish Open and for Lowry, we have to go all the way back to the 2019 Open Championship. Both players were open about their disappointment in how the start of their seasons had gone, and set a clear goal of picking up a win and 400 FedEx Cup points each. Other notable teams included past champs Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama, Matt & Alex Fitzpatrick, and Sahith Theegala and Will Zalatoris. 

On Thursday, Lowry and McIlroy wasted no time getting their round going. The pair made birdies at the first four holes, and 11 total on the round along with no bogeys and set the pace for the field with an 11-under 61. After a 2-under 70 in alternate shot on Friday, Lowry and McIlroy found themselves near the top of the leaderboard ahead of the weekend. Tied with them at 13-under was Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard. Former BYU teammates Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn were also playing well, carding rounds of 63 and 70. Zalatoris and Theegala struggled to get anything going and ended up missing the cut. 

Saturday brought more low scores, with Fishburn and Blair leading the way after carding a 12-under round of 60 to surge up to the top of the leaderboard. Lowry and McIlroy started out slow in the third round, but made up a lot of ground on the back nine where they made five birdies and ended up shooting a 64 to stay within reach of the leaders. It was no secret that McIlroy and Lowry definitely had the most win equity and experience on the leaderboard. There was nobody else in contention who had anywhere near the wins that Rory has, and a handful of them have never won on tour before. 

Even so, Blair and Fishburn had the lead as the final round began. But it was another unlikely duo, Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer, lighting up the leaderboard in the alternate shot format. The pair made 11 total birdies, including 7 on the back nine to card a 9-under 63 and take the solo lead in the clubhouse at 25-under par, hours before the final groups would finish. 

McIlroy and Lowry trailed by one entering the final hole, but made birdie at the par 5 to tie the lead at 25-under. Fishburn and Blair made a costly double bogey at the 17th that spoiled their chances, and Brehm and Hubbard couldn’t get any putts to fall and ended up finishing one shot short at -24. 

The playoff was set between McIlroy-Lowry and Trainer-Ramey, but it was apparent right away that the Irish duo would have the advantage. With both teams near the green in two on the par-5 18th, Trainer chunked his shot and wound up still short of the green. McIlroy and Lowry were able to make a comfortable par, forcing Ramey and Trainer to save their par to extend the playoff.

Trainer had a chance to redeem himself and extend the playoff with one stroke – a six-foot par putt. The putt missed, and the duo of Lowry and McIlroy had won the Zurich Classic. The victory marks McIlroy’s 25th career title, and Lowry’s third. While it feels a bit different being a team event, it does count the same for each and could be just the thing Rory needs as he looks ahead to the remaining three majors of the season.

Winners Bag’s - Rory McIlroy & Shane Lowry 

McIlroy: 

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 (9 degrees)
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees) 
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (18 degrees) 
Irons: TaylorMade proto 4-iron, Taylormade “Rors” proto 5-9 iron. 
Wedges:  TaylorMade MG4 (46, 50, 54), Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (58 degrees) 
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X3 

Lowry:

Driver: Srixon ZX5 MK II (8.5 degrees) 
5-wood: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (18 degrees) 
Irons: Srixon ZX Utility (3 iron), Srixon ZX5 MK II (4&5 iron), Srixon ZX7 MK II (6-PW)
Wedges: Cleveland RTX 6 Zipcore Tour Rack (50, 54 degrees), Cleveland RTX Full Face (58 degrees) 
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour Z 

On the LPGA Tour 

This week the LPGA Tour was in Los Angeles for the JM Eagle LA Championship. The biggest headline is that Nelly Korda decided to take the week off, so her chase for a sixth straight win will have to win. Instead, a full field of hungry competitors was ready to put a different name in the winner’s circle. Jin Young Ko, Celine Boutier, Patty Tavatanakit, Rose Xhang, Maja Stark, and Hannah Green were amongst the many stars in the field this week. 

Maja Stark, the 24-year-old Swede, has been playing some excellent golf lately and build on that momentum out of the gates, opening with an impressive round of 65. Australian Grace Kim got off to an even better start, shooting 64 in round 1. Fellow Australian Hannah Green who is the defending champion this week, also started out strong with a Thursday 67. 

Green and Stark both kept the momentum going on Friday, shooting a pair of 69’s. After starting out with a 64, Kim followed it up with a Friday 66 and had the lead by herself. 

Over the weekend, Kim’s putter went cold and she carded rounds of 76 and 77 and finished T25. Green, on the other hand, kept moving forward. After grinding out a 70 in round three, Green entered Sunday at the top with Stark lurking. 

With better scoring conditions on Sunday, Green was able to break away from the field on the back nine. After turning in even par, Green made birdies at 12 and 13, an eagle at 14, and another birdie at 15, to get to 5-under very quickly. She made pars on the final two holes which was just a formality at that point, and Green would win by three over Maja Stark. Successfully defending her title, this marks Green’s fifth LPGA Tour title, and her third since last year.