Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry have appeared in front of the media for the first time since McIlroy’s history-making Masters and Grand Slam win nearly a fortnight ago.
The Irish duo are currently in Louisiana for the defence of their Zurich Classic title, where they not only won together in 2024 but also caused quite the excitement with their now-famous singing celebrations that spurred on months of good form for both golfers.
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While they may be there to defend their title, it wasn’t long before questions strayed to McIlroy’s playoff win at Augusta National two weeks ago, where he beat Justin Rose to claim the 2025 Masters and become just the sixth-ever golfer to complete a career grand slam.
When Lowry was one of the first people to embrace McIlroy after the win, fans were hoping for a repeat of the celebratory scenes that the Irish pair had delivered in Louisiana nearly a year earlier.
It wasn’t to be, however, and much like the Masters, the Offaly and Down native’s celebrations were shrouded in mystery.
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Rory McIlroy reveals how he celebrated historic Masters win
Appearing ahead of Wednesday morning’s pro-am, however, both Lowry and McIlroy sat down in front of the media, and McIlroy wasted no time avoiding the obvious and detailing how he spent his celebratory trip to Ireland.
Speaking to the assembled media, McIlroy explained how he first took a trip to his new house in London before making his way back to Belfast for emotional celebrations with his family and friends.
It’s not everyday you get to fulfil one of your lifelong goals and dreams and I’ve just really tried to enjoy everything that comes along with that. We first went to London with Erica and Poppy to see our new home that we’re building there last week.
Then we made the trip over to Belfast to see my Mum and Dad and a few other people that are important to me over there.
Just to be with them, to be with Erica and Poppy and my mum and dad, and to see Michael Bannon my lifelong coach and spend a bit more time with Harry (Diamond) and his wife and celebrate with the people that have been part of this whole thing for my entire career and my entire was absolutely amazing.
As you can hear, I picked up a bit of a cold on the way, so I’m feeling a little bit under the weather but obviously it’s been an amazing few days but I’m excited and happy to be here with my man (Shane Lowry) and trying to defend.
Despite the celebrations, McIlroy never had any intention of skipping this weekend’s Zurich Classic, with the Holywood native also revealing that the pair had a discussion about this weekend’s tournament the night he won the Masters, in which McIlroy made it known in no uncertain terms that they’d be defending their title.
That was one of the things Shane said to me that night, ‘are you still wanting to come and play Zurich?’
I said absolutely, we’re defending a title, we had so much fun here last year so obviously it’s important to me to honour that commitment.
With the Masters now firmly in their rearview mirror, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy will tee off alongside Billy Hoschel and Tom Hoge for round one of their Zurich Classic title defence at 1.52 pm on Thursday afternoon.
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