WATCH: Rory McIlroy drains incredible 30-foot eagle after 90-minute delay at Zurich Classic

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry bounced back in the game in the third round of the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans. At this week's PGA Tour event, McIlroy and Lowry, who are defending champions of the event, struggled with their game, but the third round brought some relief for them, and they jumped ten spots on the leaderboard.

Rory McIlroy was pretty impressive on Saturday, April 26. He was phenomenal and made a marvelous 30-foot eagle on the final 18th hole. Check out McIlroy's impressive eagle during the third round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans:

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Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry's team made two eagles during the third round of the PGA Tour event. The first came on the seventh hole. On the par 5 546-yard hole, Lowry made the eagle from 47ft 8 inches, while on the 18th, it was McIlroy who made the eagle.

The third round of the game was affected by inclement weather. It was suspended because of the lightning at around 2:15 pm ET. The round finally resumed at 3:37 pm ET after more than 90 minutes of delay.

The tournament, however, despite the delay, wrapped up with the third round on Saturday. Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin jumped up one spot to take the lead in the game with an overall score of 27-under.

Shane Lowry reflects on Rory McIlroy's eagle at the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans

In the post-round press conference, Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy opened up about their performance. They started with the opening round of 64 and then played a round of 69 on Friday during the second round of the game. It was the third round of 61 that helped them secure a good position on the leaderboard while heading into the finale.

Lowry opened up about McIlroy's last-minute eagle on Saturday, saying (via ASAP Sports):

"I was pretty happy to have Rory go out and eagle the last there. It makes dinner taste nicer and kind of puts us in a great position going into tomorrow."

While speaking of their performance, Lowry said:

"I feel like we played pretty well today, I think. There was a lot of holes where both of us had chances. Yeah, we went out and we did what we had to do. Look, we knew we were going to have to go out and shoot a really low score today. There's not much wind out there, and the course is fairly gettable, and in four-balls you want to be shooting at least 10-under."

The final round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will take place in a foursome format on Sunday, April 27. McIlroy and Lowry will tee off in a group with Isaiah Salinda and Kevin Velo at 12:33 pm CDT.

About the author

Ankita Yadav is an NFL and Golf writer at Sportskeeda with over three years of experience in journalism (and counting). With a Master’s degree in Chemistry, she somehow swapped test tubes for touchdowns and tee shots—and hasn’t looked back since.

She’s previously covered the world of entertainment with OtakuKart and TV Season & Spoilers and worked as an editor at ComingSoon. Her stories have racked up nearly nine million reads, and she’s had the chance to interview top athletes like professional golfer Yuvraj Singh Sandhu.

Based in Bhopal, Ankita proudly supports the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes, and is a fan of Nelly Korda. When she’s not writing, she’s probably at a live music show, watching a movie, out on a long drive, or in the kitchen cooking up something that tastes better than it looks.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua