{"id":577986,"date":"2026-04-01T06:41:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577986\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T06:41:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T06:41:24","slug":"rory-mcilroy-not-playing-zurich-classic-as-shane-lowry-has-surprising-new-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/577986\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Not Playing Zurich Classic As Shane Lowry Has Surprising New Partner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"74\">Rory McIlroy won\u2019t be playing in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but his partner, Shane Lowry, has found a new teammate: Brooks Koepka.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"77\">The two have committed to the PGA Tour\u2019s lone team event, being played at TPC Louisiana from April 23\u201326.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7d\">In 2024, Lowry and McIlroy, good friends, partnered up for the tournament and won. Last year, in their title defense, they placed T12 as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/andrew-novak-ben-griffin-first-pga-tour-wins-zurich-classic\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak snatched the title<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7g\">This year, however, McIlroy is likely cutting down on his schedule and also withdrew from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroy-withdraws-arnold-palmer-invitational-due-to-back-injury\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Arnold Palmer Invitational<\/a> earlier this month with a back injury, before grinding out a T46 at the Players Championship the following week. The Zurich Classic is two weeks after the Masters.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Major Star Power is coming to New Orleans!<br \/>2024 Zurich Classic champion Shane Lowry will team up with five time major winner Brooks Koepka at this year\u2018s event!  April 23-26. Don\u2019t miss out, <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2hSoq5Y4Ih\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/2hSoq5Y4Ih<\/a>. Kids 15 &amp; under FREE <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ao41MUK7df\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/ao41MUK7df<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zurich Classic (@Zurich_Classic) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Zurich_Classic\/status\/2038639240771248199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 30, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7m\">Lowry has made six starts this season, including a runner-up at the Cognizant Classic, where he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/nico-echavarria-steals-cognizant-classic-shane-lowry-collapses\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fumbled a three-stroke lead on holes 16 and 17<\/a>. The 2019 British Open winner is looking for his first win since the 2024 Zurich.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7p\">Koepka, meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/golf\/brooks-koepka-will-return-pga-tour-this-month\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was reinstated by the PGA Tour<\/a> after leaving LIV Golf in December. One of the stipulations of his return, though, is that he isn\u2019t eligible for signature events unless he qualifies. Therefore, winning an event like the Zurich would boost the five-time major champion\u2019s status on Tour.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7s\">The Zurich Classic does not award world ranking points as a team event, but grants 400 FedEx Cup points and a two-year exemption to each winner. Plus $1,372,750 each from the $9.5 million purse.<\/p>\n<p>More Golf from Sports Illustrated<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy won\u2019t be playing in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, but his partner, Shane Lowry, has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-577986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}