Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will have to put their friendship to the side for the final round of the Masters, but the two Irish golf stars have a long history with each other
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will go from best friends to golf rivals at the Masters this evening. At Augusta, both have a great opportunity to win the Green Jacket.
McIlroy’s historic six-stroke lead may have disappeared in round three, but he is still the joint leader with Cameron Young. Meanwhile, Lowry is only two strokes behind the pair and, having scored a remarkable hole-in-one last night, will be feeling optimistic about his chances.
Away from the course, they are extremely close friends who will most likely share a bottle of wine or two when the major is over. However, things have not always been smooth between the pair.
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McIlroy and Lowry’s money rift
In 2013, McIlroy and Lowry’s friendship hit the rocks after the former chose to walk away from the agency they were both a part of. In an interview in 2022, McIlroy said to the Irish Independent: “I would say very close early on, not-so-close in the middle, and closer than ever now. We were being managed by the same person [Conor Ridge], in the same agency [Horizon Sports]. Then I had a fall-out with Horizon in 2013, it got a bit messy for a couple of years, not because one of us had done wrong to the other, but because of the circumstances.”
They mended their friendship by discussing their disagreement in Belfast, when McIlroy was there for the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year and after Lowry won the Bridgestone Invitational. The defending Masters champion said: “Shane won in Akron and I reached out to him. The BBC Sports Personality of the Year was in Belfast that year, and we went for a few drinks afterwards and had a really good chat.
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“So it’s really nice since he started playing here that we’ve got close again. Erica and Wendy [Shane’s wife] get on great, and our kids are a similar age. It’s all good.” He then went on to admit: “Do you know what it was over? Money, exactly. It’s the root of all evil.”
Of course, these issues are far behind the pair of them, who are close friends on and off the course. Lowry was one of the first players to embrace McIlroy when he lifted the Masters last year – if McIlroy is able to retain his title, Lowry would certainly be there again with a huge smile on his face.
Lowry’s admiration for Erica Stoll
The Ryder Cup was plagued by vicious fan abuse from spectators at Bethpage Black. While both stars received their fair share of verbal barbs, some of the worst abuse was thrown in the direction of McIlroy’s wife, Erica Stoll, who also had a beer cup launched at her.
At the end of the day, Lowry expressed his admiration for the way in which Stoll ignored those shouting abuse at her. He said: “I was out there for two days with Erica McIlroy.
“The amount of abuse that she received was astonishing, and the way she was out there supporting her husband and supporting her team was unbelievable, and kudos to her for that.”
Lowry also spoke with Stoll after McIlroy’s Masters win last year. “This means everything to him. This is all he thinks about, all he talks about,” Lowry said. “He always said to me he’d retire a happy man if he won the Green Jacket, so I told Erica (McIlroy’s wife) he can retire now. He’s had a long 10, 11 years; he’s had a lot of hurdles to get over, and it’s a credit to him.”
McIlroy’s £7.1m decision
McIlroy, however, left Lowry looking for a new partner when he decided not to compete in the Zurich Classic. The two friends have regularly partnered up in the event, which has a £7.1m prize kitty, with £1m on offer for each individual winner.
However, in the build-up to the Masters, news from Golf Magic claimed McIlroy has decided not to compete in the event they won in 2024. The Northern Irishman recently said he will be scaling back on the number of PGA Tour events he will compete in so he can spend more time with his family.
Instead, Lowry is going to play alongside Brooks Koepka at the event, which begins on April 20th.
Watch The Masters with Sky’s Ultimate TV bundle
Coverage of The Masters gets underway on April 6 and golf fans can watch it live with Sky’s Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle. This includes 135 channels, nine from Sky Sports, plus HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu.
