Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry look to bounce back at RBC Heritage signature this week
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After a disappointing week at the Masters, both Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry will decompress and reassess at this week’s RBC Heritage signature event in nearby Hilton Head, South Carolina.
It’s one of Lowry’s favorites spots on the PGA Tour calendar and a rare schedule addition on Rory McIlroy’s busy upcoming schedule.
A week later, they team up in the Zurich Classic in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“I think I’m like 50th in the FedEx Cup,” said McIlroy of committing on Friday to play the Heritage. “I need to get all the events under my belt as I can.”
McIlroy rather famously skipped Hilton Head last year as he needed time to recover from his shocking missed cut at the Masters that put him in a funk. The decision to not play cost him $3 million for missing a second designated mandatory start.
While McIlroy has played only twice at the very claustrophobic Harbour Town Golf Links – in his rookie season in 2009 and right after the pandemic shutdown in 2020, making the cut both times but never finishing better than T41 – Lowry is a regular at competing in the low-country vibe that serves as a natural place to settle the adrenaline after a trying week at Augusta National.
He’s played the Heritage six times since 2017 and finished third twice.
“We share a house with the Fleetwoods next week, both families together, down on the beach in Hilton Head,” Lowry said.
“It’s more of treat it as a holiday for the first couple days and then come Thursday we get back to work.
“Yeah, I’ll be taking a couple of days off before I do anything after this. It’s been a long kind of 10, 15 days, getting ready for this and then coming out and playing in this. I’ll need a couple days to rest and regroup and get back after it.”
McIlroy wasn’t ready to completely process his disappointment in the immediate aftermath of his T22 finish in the one major he’s yet to win in the long pursuit of his career slam. But he intends to double down on a loaded schedule to play his way into form heading to the PGA Championship at the site he won his last major in 2014.
“Yeah, I need to take a little bit of time and reflect on this week and what I did well, what I didn't do so well, and sort of try to make a plan for the next few months, especially from here going through obviously the end of July,” he said.
“As you say, major season, they’re going to come thick and fast here, so hopefully get myself in a bit better form for those last three.
“The next two weeks I’m playing Hilton Head, I’m playing New Orleans. I’ll take a week off, playing Quail Hollow, play the PGA, take another week off, then play another four in a row.” Then he added a bit sarcastically: “Loving golf at the moment. Loving it.”
McIlroy does believe the work he is doing in rebuilding his iron game is on the right track and improved since the Florida swing.
“I don't feel like I need to make wholesale changes,” he said.
“That’s why I’m playing a lot. But if the time comes that I need to make wholesale changes with my golf swing and really try to reassess, it could be a six-month to a year process.
"Not saying I wouldn’t play any tournaments in that time, but the focus would be on the sort of technical side of things and really not result driven at all. I don’t think I’m there yet, but there may come a time where I need to address that and really go back to the drawing board.
“But I think right now it’s little tweaks here and there and managing my game. I really feel like I can sort of play my way into form here over these next few weeks.”
Lowry was disappointed in his scores at the Masters, but he in no way is down on the direction his game is trending heading into the meat of the major season. Even his putting on Sunday was encouraging as he heads to Hilton Head.
“Off the tee I’m as good as I’ve ever been. My iron play is very solid. My short game feels good. It’s all about holing a few putts,” he said.
While the Masters is played in the same place every year, Lowry noted that he’s already competed on the three upcoming major venues – Valhalla, Pinehurst and Royal Troon.
“I’m getting to a stage now in my career that I’m going back to major venues that I already know, so I feel like I’m getting old,” Lowry said. “But that’s nice, going back to Valhalla this year and back to Pinehurst, back to Troon, so that’s nice.”
