Rory Mcilroy celebrating with Shane Lowry on Sunday evening.
Chris Condon
Augusta, GA – Shane Lowry couldn’t bear to see.
As his childhood friend and a long strict time of Ryder Cup, Rory Mcilroywas scratching and catching his way to jacket Sunday evening-a coveted price that had avoided it in the previous 16 efforts, some disturbing heart-lowry fashionable watching CBS Telekastin on a TV in Grill Clubhouse’s room. The wild Irishman had just finished his last round, posting an 81 discouraging who sent him taking care of the manager’s table. He must have been felt as if extinguished at the tarmas, but he was not ready to pass at this historic moment.
While Mcilroy, who was also pursuing the Grand Slam career, was making his way up to the 18th Street with a lead with a blow over Justin RoseLowry was placed in a club chair near the front of the room. He joined a table with Tommy Fleetwood and his family, near a screen case that houses more than two dozen clubs from the past Masters Champions.
Fleetwood himself looked anxious as he was eye -catching on the monitor set on the wall – he had two dogs in the war, Mcilroy and the English friends of Fleetwood, Rose – but Lowry was completely uncontrolled. When Mcilroy threw his access to the right of the green bunker, the room groaned, and Lowry and Fleetwood at the same time threw their hands into the air. Misplay left Mcilroy with 18 yards between his ball and the hole. Up and down for immortality.
While Mcilroy dug his feet in the sand to stay his stay, Fleetwood remained optimistic. “He will hit him in 2 feet,” he told his tact.
However, for Lowry, the tension was a lot. He leaned over the table and buried his face in his hands.
When Mcilroy finally played the goal-a scraper and jogging from the Lowry’s glittering sand had appeared. He looked up on the screen and bark, “Go! Go! Go!” The ball went, in a perfect line, but withdrew 5 meters less than its sign.
Five meters.
In most of the circumstances, this length is everything, but a gimmoma for the best players in the world, but, of course, nothing is automatic when the weight of history-and a big 11-year-old drought-stands over your shoulders.
Lowry was reliable. He wanted to look elsewhere. At a time when Mcilroy was raising a crucial part, Lowry had left the grill, but he did not leave. After leaving, he stopped, crashed and resumed to look at the telekasti through the window of the grill. A member of the club and a couple of other loiteers were also looking at this favorable point, providing an ear for Lowry’s nerve commentary.
“This is ready at the same length that he lost in the US Open,” Lowry said, referring to the 4 Mcilroy 4-pedestrian Pinehurst no. 2 Last summer.
On the 18th Augusta National, you know what happened next.
Mcilroy rocked behind him, hit the ball … and lost.
***
Ones a thing to Observe Rory Mcilroy’s experience from afar, but quite different when you are in his circle of faith.
Lowry and Mcilroy’s relationship was established more than two decades ago in the new Golf district of Ireland. The Mcilroy star went up faster, but Lowry, a bold competitor, worked hard to continue. As elite professionals, they have traveled to the world together and fought as teammates in the events of the international team. At home – they live close to each other in Jupiter, Fla – their families are around. When Caddy of Mcilroy and Patrick Cantlay, Joe Lacava, with heat clashed with each other At the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy, Lowry withdrew to the protection of Mcilroy. Lowry has since said that he feels protective of his friend. Mcilroy, meanwhile, has said that he has received a lot of inspiration from the “ease” with which Lowry directs his life. Both have said they are good for each other.
Lowry has also been a welcoming sound board for Mcilroy, especially when it came to the crazy folly of a master title. “All the everything he is talking about is all he thinks,” Lowry told reporters Sunday evening in the shades of the club. “You know, he may not have wanted to say that, but it has really been everything for him over the past 10 years.”
With the emerald coat on his shoulders on Sunday at night, Mcilroy reflected in his most infamous masters’ collapse in 2011, explaining that he really did not know and knew himself then. He described himself as a “young man who didn’t know much about the world”, adding, “I didn’t understand why I got into a great position, and certainly didn’t understand why I let him slip in a way.”
His Sunday victory seemed to slide again. After double in 1. Then again after the uncontrollable wedge in the RAE Creek at 13. Then again after the clumsy bogey to 18 in the regulation. But this time, Mcilroy, as he had failed to do so many times before, restored the withdrawal of gravity.
“I probably didn’t make it easy,” he said. “It was one of the hardest days I have ever had in the Golf Course.”
***
When mcilroy and rose Gathered in the 18th Tee for Play -off, Grill Clubhouse’s room was still filled. Lowry was nowhere to see, but green-dressed members, corporate Bigwigs and Fleetwood gang still filled chairs-because they wouldn’t do for a long time. When Rose lost his 19 -foot bird test on the top side, she cleared the scene for Mcilroy, which had only 4 meters left for glory. This time, he returned. When the ball disappeared, he knew and his body pulsated. “Roar-ee! Roar-ee!” The crowds bowed.
Exorcism was fully developing. Tee shot in the cabins in 2011; Final Sunday 74 in 2018; The cuts lost in 2021 and ’23 – if you look closely, you can see one of those demons coming out of the Mcilroy body. When the ritual was over, Mcilroy began the Victor walk from the 18th green back across the first path and in the club area designated, a 100-nose-Aq-Oborri walk through a rope-off channel, patrons fans.
Awaiting Mcilroy on the other hand was a line of friends, coaches and beam believers – and a gold of a golf that could not wait to wrap his arms around his old friend. In fact, he was the first to do so. As Mcilroy approached the lovers’ staff, Lowry loaded him towards him and raised him from the ground, as a soldier greeting his wife after returning from the war. It was a 14 -year -old hug, and you felt it would say every time as much as Lowry as he did to the new champion.
“I didn’t have a very good day myself,” Lowry said later for a round that sent it from the sixth place at the beginning of the day to 42. “But when I reflect, this is another good example no matter how hard things get, you continue to try.”
Basic alan
Golfit.com editor
As Golf.com executive editor, Bastable is responsible for running the editorial and voice of one of the most respected and trafficked places of the game and many trafficked games. He wears many hats – editing, writing, designing, developing, dreaming of a day breaking 80 – and feels privileged to work with such a talented group and workers of writers, editors and manufacturers. Before catching the reins on Golf.com, he was the editor of the features in the Golf magazine. A graduate of the University of Richmond and the Columbia Journalism School, he lives in New Jersey with his wife and four times children.
