1 week Ago By Sam Smith
Rory McIlroy has revealed that he will skip the CJ Cup Byron Nelson this week to recharge his batteries following a gruelling April. The Masters champion will spend time at home to recuperate after competing in the Zurich Classic alongside Shane Lowry . McIlroy started the month by finally completing the Career Slam at Augusta.
The Northern Irishman defeated Justin Rose in a tense play-off to claim the one Major championship that had eluded his trophy cabinet. He then surprised everyone by cutting short his celebrations to attempt to defend with Lowry his title at the Zurich Classic, but the duo’s poor finish saw them end tied for 12th. McIlroy will have a week off before treating the Truist Championship - his next tournament - as a practice week ahead of the PGA Championship.
“I've got to just take a little bit of time here,” McIlroy said. “It's nice to have a week off, and reset and try to get some practice in. “I feel like it's like two practice weeks coming up in a way, with next week at home and then Truist, as well, in some ways.
Yeah, I'm looking forward to a couple of days off and then sort of kicking the feet up and trying to recharge the batteries a little bit.” McIlroy and Lowry were initially in contention to reclaim their title but fell away during the final round. They finished six shots behind winners Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin.
“It's been a fun week,” McIlroy said. “I think when we went back out after the delay, we felt like we still had a good chance, and we didn't make birdie on 11, and then we bogeyed 13 again for the second time this week. “Yeah, just didn't really have any momentum from when we started back up again, and it was difficult to just sort of get anything.
Overall, it's been a good week. It's always good to team up with this man. We've had fun.
” Lowry joked earlier in the week that he had been surprised by McIlroy’s determination to play in New Orleans. He insisted that they had a positive week despite their underwhelming finish. The Irishman said: “I think we played all right, just today nothing really happened for us, and then after the delay, everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
I had a great week. I'm happy my man came here this week, and we had a great time, and it was fun.”.
