Coming into the Wells Fargo Championship, Rory McIlroy feels rejuvenated after winning the Zurich Classic the last time around.
Alongside close friend Shane Lowry, McIlroy, 35, won PGA Tour title No. 25 in New Orleans, nine months after his previous victory at the Scottish Open. After faltering at the Masters, the four-time major champion concluded April on a high note with the victory at TPC Louisiana.
Aside from the outcome, though, McIlroy thinks his passion has increased because of how much fun the entire week was. The Northern Irishman has never played in a tournament before, having only agreed to play with Lowry during a hangover lunch following the Ryder Cup. The Zurich Classic is the only team event on the tour.
“The week in New Orleans did me the world of good just in terms of the fun element,” McIlroy said to NBC during his practice round at Quail Hollow. “Regardless of the outcome, we had a terrific day; it was a lot of fun.
“But winning with Shane was undoubtedly a plus as well as the outcome. Additionally, I believe that I performed really well since I felt like my game improved, especially over the weekend.
“Saturday started off a little slow, but I think I shot six under the last ten holes on Saturday. On Sunday, I played a really fantastic round of golf, even though I only hit half of the shots, which I thought were fairly decent.
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With Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy celebrates winning the Zurich Classic.
After winning the Zurich Classic with close friend Shane Lowry, Rory McIlroy was beaming.
“Then, to triumph with a friend, and you know what that accomplished for our two seasons? Shane made it into the final few major events thanks to it.
It significantly raised both of our FedEx Cup point totals. And that instilled a great deal of confidence in us for the remainder of the season and summer. Yes, it was a wonderful week.
“I’m thrilled we could play and accomplish that. It certainly gets me enthusiastic about the remainder of the year.”
“It’s difficult to have fun when you’re having trouble achieving the outcomes you want out of your golf game, don’t you think? Maintaining your passion is difficult. Maintaining that optimistic outlook every week is difficult.
After being ‘hounded’ by a rival, Rory McIlroy mercilessly ignored the LIV Golf star.
“That was my fourth week in a row, and I was saying to my team last week, it’s a great lesson for me that sometimes it’s not about going back home and working on your game and standing on the range when things aren’t going great,” said Rory McIlroy, capping a nine-month PGA Tour layoff.
“The key is to try to play, to play through it, to recognize your misses and learn coping mechanisms.
“It was a good lesson to me that sometimes just to keep going is the right thing to do, and to keep playing and to keep working on what you’re working on and having faith that it is all going to come together at some point.”
