Rory McIlroy Drops Zurich Classic From Schedule As Shane Lowry Finds New Partner

The McIlroy-Lowry partnership at the Zurich Classic has run its course, the tournament has confirmed in announcing a new Shane Lowry and Brooks Koepka partnership this year.

The all-Srixon duo will team up next month in the pairs event, which takes place at TPC Louisiana from April 23-26.

McIlroy and Lowry won the event in 2024 in their debut together, which was also the five-time Major champion's first ever start in the tournament.

The partnership came about following the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome, when the close friends had a "drunken lunch" together back home in Florida.

"Very excited," McIlroy told Golf.com in 2024. "I asked him [Lowry]. We had this really drunken lunch the week after the Ryder Cup last year. I said to him, 'Do you want to play Zurich together?' We're like, 'Yeah'."

They kept to their deal and the partnership got off to the perfect start with victory in 2024, when they defeated Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer in a playoff before celebrating with karaoke on stage.

They returned last year as McIlroy made his first start since completing the career grand slam at The Masters. They finished T12th, six back of winners Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak.

The defending champions are confirmed for this year's event as well as Danish twins Nicolai and Rasmus Hojgaard, who finished as runners-up last year.

The Zurich Classic looks to be the latest event to fall off of McIlroy's 2026 schedule, with the former World No.1 also dropping the Houston Open this year. It means he heads to Augusta with three full weeks off, having last competed at The Players Championship earlier this month.

He had been struggling with a back issue, which forced him out of the Arnold Palmer Invitational the week before.

"I'll see. I haven't really made a decision either way," he said on his pre-Masters schedule at TPC Sawgrass.

"I'll see how my body feels. We'll see how I feel in practice and at home and if I get itchy feet at home maybe add an event at some point.

"I feel like it was important to make the weekend here and play an extra couple of days.

"But yeah, really just see how the next week goes, see how once I get back to actually a full practice schedule and in the gym and stuff like that, see how my body reacts to that, and then I'll see."