Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are very close friends away from the golf course.
McIlroy and Lowry know each other’s golf games better than most, having played hundreds of rounds together over the years.
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The six-time major champion has obviously enjoyed a more successful career than the 39-year-old.
However, while Shane Lowry doesn’t win with as much regularity as Rory McIlroy, when he does win they seem to be huge victories, the 2019 Open Championship included.
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McIlroy knows all about huge wins himself, of course.
Shane Lowry has seen Rory McIlroy win back-to-back Masters tournaments close up, and he will still believe he can replicate his good friend’s success at Augusta National.
However, McIlroy is the one who will be taking inspiration from Lowry this time, after the 39-year-old’s Irish Open win.
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Shane Lowry’s Irish Open win is just what Rory McIlroy needed
McIlroy’s 2026 PGA Tour season will obviously go down as a successful one.
Winning The Masters guarantees that, regardless of what happens elsewhere throughout the year.
In spite of that, McIlroy will still be incredibly frustrated with his form on the PGA Tour from April to August.
McIlroy admitted to losing his motivation to play in regular PGA Tour events after winning The Masters for the second consecutive year.
However, Lowry winning the Irish Open may be just what McIlroy needed to get his juices flowing again.
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The 37-year-old Northern Irishman has a huge run of events coming up over the next couple of months, starting with the BMW PGA Championship this week at Wentworth and ending in Australia in December.
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Watching Lowry win his national open in such dominating fashion will light a fire in McIlroy’s belly.
Seeing the one-time major winner celebrating in his homeland will undoubtedly make McIlroy think, ‘I want some of that’.
The six-time major champion is staying at his own house in Surrey this week. He will feel completely at ease, and he absolutely loves the golf course at Wentworth.
Lowry’s win last week might just be the spark that McIlroy needed to reignite his 2026 season.
Rory McIlroy suggests potential reason for Shane Lowry’s PGA Tour struggles
McIlroy finished his fourth round at Trump International golf links while Lowry was heading towards his second Irish Open title.
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The six-time major winner responded when asked how much he would love to see his good friend lift the trophy.
“It would be absolutely incredible He had a couple of chances — he had a big chance earlier this year at the Honda, the Cognizant,” McIlroy said.
“I felt like he never got going with his season after that. Knocked him back a little bit.
“To see him in contention out there, obviously the whole country would love to see him get it done, me included.“
So, McIlroy believes that Lowry’s failure to win the Cognizant Classic back in March affected his entire PGA Tour season.
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Lowry even admitted himself that he struggled to bounce back after failing to win the Cognizant.
“Cognizant was pretty hard,“ Lowry admitted.
“And I would go back to the Sunday of the Masters was especially difficult for me this year, and I feel like after that, a lot of wind went out of my sails. I feel like I was playing great golf, and even after that, I felt like I was playing decent and finishing 25th, 30th, 40th, just doing nothing every week and it was very, very tough.
“In that stretch, I played like 11 out of 13 weeks or something. So it was quite hard.
“Then the more you kind of keep trying to play through it, the harder it can get sometimes. So to take a few weeks off and kind of reset was nice.“
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Shane Lowry will be hoping that he has banished his Cognizant Classic demons with his Irish Open win.
And Rory McIlroy should have gained real inspiration as well after watching his good friend win his national open for the second time.
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