-Credit:Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry failed to mount a challenge during Sunday’s final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, finishing six shots behind winners Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin at TPC Louisiana.
The pair came into the tournament as defending champions and raced into contention following a brilliant 61 on Saturday to leave them five shots behind the eventual winners.
However, they finished in a tie for 12th place during the foursomes on Sunday, with three bogeys on the back nine proving costly.
READ MORE: Rory McIlroy’s £2m dream house he had to sell, ‘new house’ plans, mansion with Erica Stoll
READ MORE: Donald Trump blasted for ‘disrespectful’ choice of suit at Pope Francis’ funeral
Novak was denied his first PGA Tour win after losing out to Justin Thomas in a play-off one week earlier at the RBC Heritage, but he didn’t have long to wait with Griffin also securing his maiden PGA victory.
The event was McIlroy’s first start since completing the career grand slam at the US Masters.
Despite a disappointing Sunday, McIlroy and Lowry did finish in style with the former sinking a birdie putt on the 18th hole with McIlroy stating that they couldn’t get momentum going after play was halted for an hour due to the threat of lightening.
“We just didn’t really have any momentum from when we started back up again, and it was difficult to just sort of get anything,” said McIlroy
“We noticed the greens got pretty fast and pretty firm after the delay, too, so got a little tougher.”
“It was nice to come and try and defend,” said Lowry.
“I think we did a good job for the most part. I think we played all right, just today nothing really happened for us, and then after the delay we just went – everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
“I had a great week. I’m happy my man came here this week, and we had a great time, and it was fun.”
McIlroy added: “It’s always good to team up with this man – We’ve had fun.”
Winners Novak and Griffin claimed the top prize of $1.3m each following their victory in New Orleans while McIlroy and Lowry pocked $69,092 each.
McIlroy is next in action at the Truist Championship in Philadelphia in a fortnight before heading to Quail Hollow one week later for the second major of the season – the PGA Championship.
Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox
