{"id":47778,"date":"2025-04-24T22:46:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/47778\/"},"modified":"2025-04-24T22:46:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T22:46:12","slug":"pga-tour-event-record-smashed-as-rory-mcilroy-and-shane-lowry-chase-history-of-their-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/47778\/","title":{"rendered":"PGA Tour event record smashed as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry chase history of their own"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry face competition from an unlikely source to defend their title at TPC Louisiana.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pair are once again competing as a team at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans<\/a> this weekend.<\/p>\n

\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

McIlroy and Lowry began their Zurich Classic of New Orleans defence on ThursdayCredit: Getty\"Isaiah<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Isaiah Salinda and Kevin Velo top the leaderboard after breaking the event’s four-ball recordCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Last year’s event saw the duo claim victory on McIlroy’s debut in the team tournament.<\/p>\n

However, they currently sit six shots off the lead after Thursday’s opening round in what was a record-breaking day.<\/p>\n

PGA Tour<\/a> rookies Isaiah Salinda and Kevin Velo top the leaderboard after a 14-under 58.<\/p>\n

Their score is a new 18-hole event record in the the four-ball format, breaking the previous record of 59.<\/p>\n

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele<\/a> set the previous best in their first round in 2019.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, twins Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard had equalled that score themselves earlier on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Danish duo sit a shot behind Salinda and Velo heading into the foursomes on Friday.<\/p>\n

As for McIlroy and Lowry, they find themselves tied for 16th after an opening round 64,<\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup<\/a> heroes are one of 11 teams to end Thursday on eight-under-par.<\/p>\n

It comes as they aim to become the first team to successfully defend their title since the Zurich Classic of New Orleans became a team event<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

The Hojgaard twins had equalled the event record earlier in the dayCredit: Getty\"McIlroy<\/a><\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

McIlroy and Lowry, who could become the first back-to-back winners, are tied for 16thCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

Since 2017, no team has won the tournament in back-to-back years.<\/p>\n

Cameron Smith is the only player to win the team event twice, doing so with Jonas Blixt in 2017 and again in 2021 alongside Marc Leishman.<\/p>\n

This weekend is also the first time McIlroy has played competitively since completing the career Grand Slam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Masters<\/a> champion skipped last week’s RBC Heritage, as he often does after the challenge of Augusta National.<\/p>\n

Lowry even doubted whether his friend would be up for heading to Louisiana as he watched him claim the green jacket.<\/p>\n

Speaking at their pre-tournament press conference, the Northern Irishman explained: \u201cOn the 15th hole at Augusta, I was done so I was watching the leaderboard.<\/p>\n

Frustrated Shane Lowry walks out of Masters interview after X-rated response to Rory McIlroy question<\/p>\n

“I think he\u2019d just made double on 13. I said to Darren [Reynolds, Lowry\u2019s caddie]: \u2018No matter what happens the next few holes, I think we\u2019re going to do well to get him to New Orleans.\u2019<\/p>\n

“If things didn\u2019t go his way, I don\u2019t think he\u2019d want to be here and I thought if things did go his way, he\u2019d want to be somewhere else.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m happy he\u2019s here. I\u2019m not saying we\u2019re going to be down on Bourbon Street every night but we\u2019re here to enjoy it.”<\/p>\n

McIlroy and Lowry will tee off for their second round alongside Americans Kevin Chappell and Tom Hoge at 6.49pm GMT on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry face competition from an unlikely source to defend their title at TPC Louisiana.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4106],"tags":[2826,4298,4287,7929,79,16,15,23496],"class_list":{"0":"post-47778","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-golf","9":"tag-pga-tour","10":"tag-rory-mcilroy","11":"tag-shane-lowry","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-zurich-classic-of-new-orleans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47778\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}