Rory McIlroy revealed that he and Shane Lowry exchanged text messages after he missed the cut at The Open in Portrush last weekend and again when the Offaly man went on to win the tournament.
"He texted me on Friday night, gave me a couple of words of encouragement and that was nice," McIlroy said at a press conference ahead of the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in Memphis.
He said to me, 'I'll see you in Memphis' and I said, 'Well, I hope I don't see you in Memphis because hopefully you're still drinking out of the Claret Jug'. That came to fruition and that was nice.
"I texted him straight after and that was nice," continued McIlroy.
"I sort of said to him, 'Look, it's going to change your life'. It's so different, you saw it yesterday when he went back to his hometown and the amount of people who came out to see him. It is a life-changer and especially doing it there at Portrush. He's going to be a national hero for the rest of his life.
"I just said I was so happy for him, for his wife Wendy, his daughter Iris, his Mum and Dad, his whole team.
"I just said to him, 'We're going to go out for dinner in New York during the Northern Trust. I need to bring you out for dinner and have a couple of celebratory drinks'.
"I'm looking forward to seeing him and I'm just so happy for him. I've spent a lot of time with him and our wives, Erica and Wendy, have become very close. It's always great to see friends do so well."
Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
