Would it be Gautreau’s or Arnaud’s or somewhere else for dinner on the town in New Orleans on Saturday night? With all of the fabulous gastronomical choices for Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry to consider, it kept their minds off of golf during a 90-minute weather delay in the third round of the two-man team Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

It kept McIlroy about thinking of one stroke of his putter, actually. The two Irishman, defending champions of the Zurich, were approaching the 18th green at TPC Louisiana to complete their third round when the horn blew.

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On a day when the team had torched the course for eight birdies and an eagle through 17 holes of fourball, McIlroy had a 30-foot putt for eagle that, if he made it, would give them a hard-charging 61 and a legitimate chance for a title repeat.

But that’s the last thing they wanted to consider while they ate lunch and watched a replay from their victory from a year ago.

“The last thing on my mind during the delay was the putt, and then once I got back out there, I sort of concentrated on it and made sure I did what I needed to do, and just a bonus for it to go in.”

With the eagle and 61, McIlroy and Lowry moved to 22 under for the week as the field headed to alternate-shot play on Sunday. Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin, each seeking their first PGA Tour title, are the leaders at 27 under after shooting 61 on Saturday. Jake Knapp and Frankie Capan III had the day’s best scorecard with 60, and they were tied in second at 24 under with the Japanese duo of Ryo Hisatsune and Takumi Kanaya (61).

The Irishmen, appearing for the defence of the Zurich despite McIlroy nursing a cold after his extensive post-Masters celebration, started the tournament with a 64 in fourball, but struggled a bit on Friday with a 69 in alternate shot that put them four back of Novak and Griffin, who opened 62-66. On Saturday, they mostly balanced the work, with McIlroy making the eagle and five birdies, while Lowry also made an eagle to go with three birdies. They did give up a stroke on the par-3 17th when both missed the green and could make 10- and 12-foot par putts.

“I feel like we played pretty well today, I think,” Lowry said. “There was a lot of holes where both of us had chances. 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 fourballs you want to be shooting at least 10 under. 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.”

As for the evening’s meal, they’d already dined this week at Gautreau’s and Arnaud’s, places they ate at last year. No word on what they decided for Saturday evening, but in New Orleans, it was going to be hard for them to go wrong on or off the golf course.

Main Image: Chris Graythen