After Rory McIlroy finally won his elusive first Masters green jacket, his friend Shane Lowry hinted he might be close to hanging things up for good.
“This means everything to him,” Lowry, 38, told Golf Channel. “This is all he thinks about, all he talks about. He always said to me he’d retire a happy man if he won the green jacket, so I told Erica [Stoll, McIlroy’s wife] he can retire now.”
Lowry added, “He’s had a long 10, 11 years. He’s had a lot of hurdles to get over and it’s a credit to him.”
McIlroy, 35, won the 2025 Masters Tournament on the first sudden death playoff hold over Justin Rose on April 13. With the victory, McIlroy became just the sixth golfer in history to win the career grand slam, achieved when a golfer wins the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Open Championship during their career.
Lowry and McIlroy have been friends for decades, dating back to their time growing up together as junior golfers in Ireland.
McIlroy and Stoll, 37, have been married since April 2017, though the couple briefly split up last year when McIlroy filed for divorce in in May 2024. McIlroy dismissed the divorce filing one month later. The couple share daughter Poppy, 4.
Before the start of the 2025 season, McIlroy said he planned on keeping his golf calendar a little less jam-packed than usual.
“There’s a few tournaments that I played this year that I don’t usually play and that I might not play next year,” McIlroy told The Telegraph in November 2024. “Like, I played the Cognizant [Classic] in Palm Beach Gardens, [the Texas Open in] San Antonio and the [RBC Heritage in] Hilton Head.”
McIlroy held true to his word and did not play this year’s RBC Heritage, which Justin Thomas won in a sudden death playoff on Sunday, April 20. Instead, McIlroy was in Ireland to celebrate his Masters victory with his parents, Rosie and Gerry. Poppy made the trip with McIlroy, but Stoll was noticeably absent.
“At this point in my career … Hey, I’m 35 and have been out here for 17, 18 years, so I’m just going to go to the places that I enjoy and where I play well,” McIlroy added last year. “Look I’ve done the hard slog, I’ve done that sort of 25 to 30 events a year. And I’m not getting any younger.”
McIlroy will return to the PGA Tour circuit on Thursday, April 24, when he teams with Lowry at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the PGA Tour’s only FedEx Cup regular season two-man team event. McIlroy and Lowry won the event last year.
“We’ll be there,” Lowry told Golfweek. “I talked to him [Wednesday] morning. We’re good to go.”
Lowry added, “To be honest, I didn’t want him to feel like he had to play because of me. He’s not letting me down if he wanted to take some time. He feels like he wants to get back out there. He feels like next week is a good week to do it. So, yeah, we’ll be there.”
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