AVONDALE, La. — After a busy week and a half since winning the Masters and completing the career Grand Slam, Rory McIlroy has a very different challenge ahead of him in New Orleans.
Instead of being on his own this week, McIlroy and Shane Lowry are back to defend their title at the Zurich Classic, the PGA Tour’s lone team event.
After traveling to London and then Northern Ireland last week to visit his parents with the green jacket, McIlroy arrived back in the States Sunday night and woke up Monday with a cold. He and Lowry didn’t arrive in New Orleans until Tuesday night after storms in New Orleans suspended practice rounds at TPC Louisiana.
But McIlroy told Lowry the night he won the Masters that he still intended to play with him this week at Zurich, and part of the reason was the uniqueness of this event.
“It’s a fun event to be out there with Shane,” McIlroy said Wednesday morning. “I also know that it’s not all on me; he has to do some of the work, too. Maybe a lot of it the next two days. But yeah, it is, it’s a perfect tournament to come back to.”
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But that same uniqueness also presents a unique gear challenge for regular PGA Tour golf. With two rounds of four-ball and two rounds of foursomes this week, teams who play two different golf balls. McIlroy, who made a high-profile switch to TaylorMade’s softer TP5 from the TP5x earlier this season, and Lowry, who plays Srixon’s Z-Star XV, need to pick a ball for the alternate-shot rounds.
But it turns out, the defending champions took advantage of a loophole last year and plan to do the same this year.
“If Shane is hitting the approach into the green, I’ll probably hit his golf ball off the tee, and then vice versa, he’ll hit my golf ball off the tee if I’m hitting the approach,” McIlroy said.
Turns out the one-ball rule that prevents players from changing the models of golf balls during a round is not in play at the Zurich Classic and hasn’t been since the event moved to a team format. The rule was also dropped from the Ryder Cup and the Presidents Cup nearly 20 years ago.
But even if it was, Lowry downplayed the significance of the adjustment, especially for tee shots.
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“We did some testing yesterday morning back home when we delayed our trip,” Lowry said. “I went down to the range, and we both practice at the same place so both our golf balls are there, and we did some testing and they’re pretty similar.
“We could either use either, but it’s foursomes — like we played a lot of foursomes growing up, obviously Ryder Cups and stuff, so you kind of figure out how to do it. You drive each other’s golf ball and then, because driving is not the issue. Especially when it gets windier, the wind is swirling, you want to have control of your ball.
“I think we figured it out last year, and we’ll do it this year.”
Not every team is taking that strategy, however. The team of Jake Knapp (Titleist Pro V1 Left Dot) and Frankie Capan III (Titleist Pro V1) will both play Knapp’s Left Dot. Max Greyserman (Callaway Chrome Tour Dot) and Nico Echavarria (Srixon Z-Star XV) will play Greyserman’s Chrome Tour Dot.
These will just be in play on Friday and Sunday when the teams play alternate shot. On Thursday and Saturday, players will play their own ball in four-ball.
This week, there are plenty of stories like that of Brian Harman, who switched to the 2017 Titleist Pro V1 while teaming with a player who was using it at the 2018 Zurich Classic and still uses the ball to this day.
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