‘We'll be sick of each other' – Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry drawn together at US Open in Oakmont
Lowry and McIlroy played the back at 6:40 am this morning and with plans to play again tomorrow, the Irish duo will be seeing a lot of each other over the next few days.
'We're practising tomorrow morning again, so we'll be sick of each other by Friday, but hopefully we both play well and give ourselves a run at the weekend.'
Lowry believes playing with two familiar faces in his Ryder Cup teammates will be a help.
'I played with Rory in the first two rounds of Bay Hill this year and I was well up there,' he said. 'So, yeah, I love playing with Rory, and I think we've got a great group there with Justin Rose as well.
'Everybody gets on very well, but when you're out there, there's not too much chit-chat. There's not much fun out there. But it will be nice.'
Lowry admitted watching McIlroy win the Masters to complete the career Grand Slam at Augusta National has only whet his appetite for more Major success at a venue where he had a four-shot lead after 54 holes in 2016 only to finish joint second behind Dustin Johnson.
'I've never been more jealous and more happy for someone in my whole life than watching Rory do what he did at the Masters,' he said.
'I think it was incredible for everybody, for him, for Irish golf, or anybody around him.
'And I think it just puts a bit of fire in my belly to kick on and try and be better than I have been and maybe add one more of these big ones to my name with Portrush in a few weeks as well. So excited for the summer ahead.
Lowry and McIlroy will go off the 10th at 7.40 am on Thursday (12.40 Irish time) and the first on Friday at 1.25pm (18.25 Irish time).
World number one and US Open favourite Scottie Scheffler is on the opposite side of the draw, teeing off with Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa from the first at 18.25 Irish time on Thursday and 12.40 Irish time from the 10th on Friday.
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He spoke from Augusta in April of feeling freed from the burden of his long major drought; McIlroy was, in his own words, now playing with house money. Er, not so. He barely made the cut at a bizarrely surly PGA Championship, at which he swerved media interviews amid annoyance at the leaking of the fact he had to change his non-conforming driver, and then missed the cut by a mile at last week's Canadian Open with what was, in strokes gained terms, the second-worst round of his career. McIlroy missed the cut the last time this tournament was held at Oakmont, which started a three-year run of missed cuts at the US Open. His reaction to this run is one of the more underrated aspects of his career, and he has been freakishly consistent at the tournament since. He has been in the top-10 in each of the last six years, finishing as runner-up in each of the last two editions. Advertisement Maintaining that consistency this week rests on him finding form off the tee. His driving accuracy across each of his last three events has been abysmal, and a failure to find fairways at Oakmont will mean an early end to his challenge. Having tried a new driver in Canada, McIlroy has switched up his equipment once again this week. 'I feel a little better with the driver over the weekend at home and even today playing a practice round, so hopefully I can hit a few more fairways than I have been hitting and give myself some opportunities', said McIlroy at his Tuesday afternoon press conference. A bigger question is the inner drive. McIlroy admitted ahead of the Canadian Open he had been finding it hard to have the same motivation to grind on the range now that he's achieved all he had set out to do. Speaking to the press this week, McIlroy didn't give the impression of a man who has re-fixed a maniacal focus on golf. 'I think chasing a certain goal for the better part of a decade and a half, I think I'm allowed a little bit of time to relax a little bit. But here at Oakmont, I certainly can't relax this week', before then talking of how one of his goals this year was to take up more hobbies and see more of the world, and so he's joined caddie Harry Diamond and manager Niall O'Connor for their on-the-road tennis matches. His playing partner, by contrast, arrives in much more consistent form, albeit appearing increasingly tortured by his inability to get over the line on Sunday. Lowry had a galling close shave at the Truist Championship the week before the PGA Championship, at which he missed the cut on one of his least favourite courses on Earth. He made a stunning Sunday start in Canada last week – five-under through his first four holes – only to cool off too early to catch the later starters. Lowry is less daunted than most by Oakmont, where in 2016 he took a four-shot lead into the final day only to shoot a round of six-over 76 to finish in a tie for second, three shots off winner Dustin Johnson. Lowry is a much better player now, though, and this is a course which will reward his accuracy off the tee – where he ranks among the top-30 on the PGA Tour – along with the quality of his iron play and his hands around the green, where greenside rough will reward only the very best. His contention will rest, though, on how he performs on the greens: he has shown an ability to catch fire with his putter, but these sprawling, sloping greens are redolent of those at Augusta National, on which Lowry has occasionally struggled. That said, Lowry arrives in a better position to contend than McIlroy. Their biggest issue for all may not be the brute of the course, but Scottie Scheffler. Having made a slow(ish) start to the season after hand surgery in the off-season, Scheffler is once again the dominant man in the sport: he has won on three of his last four starts and arrives exuding that air of apparent invincibility. Given Scheffler's awesome form, the brutality of the Oakmont test may ultimately be a favour to everybody else in the field. Scheffler has never won this championship, though victory this week will see him rocking up to Portrush next month seeking to complete the career Grand Slam. Scottie Scheffler: 2025 PGA Championship winner. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Who can stop him? Jon Rahm finally returned to relevance at a major championship with his Sunday charge at Quail Hollow, where his finishing score did not reflect the pressure he exerted on Scheffler. He has the muscle to deal with the Oakmont rough, along with the form to compete. Bryson DeChambeau has meanwhile 3D-printed a new set of irons in the hope he can successfully defend his title this week: at the Masters and Quail Hollow, he contended despite his ball-striking, rather than because of it. Oakmont, though, is going to be too tough to hide any aspect of your game. DeChambeau is now undoubtedly the most popular player in the game, thanks mainly to his YouTube videos, which he says has given him a new lease of life on the course. 'I view my legacy as not just winning golf tournaments', DeChambeau told the press on Tuesday. 'I view it as how much good can I do for the game outside of playing professionally. That's a metric that I hold myself up to. 'The start is YouTube, but there is so much more that's coming down the line, and that's also what gets me up every day, as well.' Elsewhere within that press conference he began some megaphone negotiations with LIV over a contract renewal – 'They see the value in me. I see the value in what they can provide' – explained if he hadn't been a golfer he would be working on how AI will be integrated into biomechanics and hailed his own business sense with the deathless line that his Crushers LIV team have been 'EBIDTA positive for the past two years.' (LIV golf is hardly leaning into the traditional partisanship of other team sports. EBIDTA positive. . . you'll never sing that.') DeChambeau will be the most popular man on the golf course, though Scheffler is, as ever, the man to beat. The greater the test, the more likely the best player is to emerge from the field. And the best player by a street is Scottie Scheffler. Tips Gavin Cooney A winner not named Scottie Scheffler: Jon Rahm (9/1) A solid, make-your-money-back e/w bet: Harris English (55/1) A wild outsider who might make you a fortune: Aaron Rai (75/1) Fintan O'Toole A winner not named Scottie Scheffler: Xander Schuaffele (18/1) A solid, make-your-money-back e/w bet: Harris English (55/1) A wild outsider who might make you a fortune: Rasmus Hojgaard (150/1)
