Rory McIlroy's time off after enjoying his Masters victory will be short-lived.
According to Shane Lowry, McIlroy will tee it up at next week's Zurich Classic so the pair can defend their 2024 title.
Lowry said to Golfweek, “we’ll be there. I talked to him (Wednesday) morning. We’re good to go."
The newly crowned Masters champion took this week’s RBC Heritage off, skipping the fifth of eight signature events on the PGA Tour calendar. However, due to his commitment to next week’s Zurich Classic it appears this was McIlroy's plan all along, regardless of the outcome at Augusta National.
Lowry is looking forward to playing with McIlroy next week but added that he didn’t want McIlroy to feel any pressure to play.
"To be honest, I didn’t want him to feel like he had to play because of me,” the Irishman said. “He’s not letting me down if he wanted to take some time. He feels like he wants to get back out there. He feels like next week is a good week to do it. So, yeah, we’ll be there.”
Lowry also spoke about how proud he was of his good friend’s achievement.
“It’s one of your good friends doing the [career] Grand Slam, it’s not something to be sniffed at; it might never happen again in my lifetime,” Lowry said. “Jordan [Spieth] of course has a good chance but Scottie [Scheffler] as good as he’s been he still needs three legs. The sheer relief and joy, how could I not be happy for [Rory]?”
The Zurich Classic is April 24-27 at TPC Louisiana outside New Orleans.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rory McIlroy Returning to PGA Tour Next Week at Zurich Classic.
