It wasn’t so much the length that led to Lowry’s T47 finish as it was the greens, as he ranked 66th of 68 in the field in strokes gained putting despite being sixth in greens in regulation.

It underscores what Lowry must fix in short order to contend this week at another long-hitters haven – Valhalla.

McIlroy is one of the favorites in the PGA Championship at a place he won his last major 10 years ago. The two Irishman partnered up three weeks ago to trigger a surge in form for both of them as they hit the heart of the majors season.

With a little help from his friend and partner, Lowry gained a strong measure of security with the Irish duo’s team victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April.

“It was lovely to get a win. It’s been a while since I’ve won over here, so it was nice,” Lowry said.

While the team win didn’t come with OWGR points or the guaranteed perk of a Masters invitation, it carried a lot of value beyond a US $1.286 million cheque.

The victory extends Lowry’s PGA Tour card through 2026 and the 400 FedEx Cup points lifted him to 12th on the season-long points list (he’s now 16th while McIlroy climbed to fourth after his subsequent win in Charlotte).

That guarantees Lowry inclusion in the rest of this season’s signature events (Memorial and Travelers) but very likely the full run of events in 2025 as well should he remain in the top 50 at season’s end. 

It also puts him in strong position to qualify for the season-ending Tour Championship at East Lake, which brings with it exemptions to all the majors next year – a token with added significance now that his five-year pass into all of the U.S.-based majors for winning the 2019 Open Championship will run out after this summer.

“Obviously, you start off every season with Tour Championship as one of your goals,” Lowry said.

“That’s well in my sights now, so that’s obviously a big goal for me. I’ve never played in Atlanta. I finished 31st a couple of times. To get there and get there in a good position would be nice.

“It’s just kind of, it just is a really good building block for the rest of the summer. I think even though we’re only in just beginning of May, the PGA Tour season, it’s already half over. There’s only half a season left.

"It comes around thick and fast, these big tournaments come around thick and fast.

“I can plan my schedule pretty nicely, which for me was actually, it was becoming a bit of a headache because my family go back home for 10 weeks and I was going to have to stay over here for a little bit longer than I would have liked and I would have been away from them for longer than I normally like. Yeah, it let me plan my summer a lot nicer.”

Winning was also further validation that Lowry is doing the right things entering the summer. It breeds more confidence for this week’s start at the PGA Championship at Valhalla.

“I feel like I’ve been pretty happy with how my season has been going. I gave myself a few chances in Florida to win. I didn’t quite win, but I felt I was trending in the right direction,” he said.

“I felt like if I just kept doing what I was doing that I wouldn’t be far away. Obviously to win the team event, it was nice having Rory McIlroy as your partner, makes things a little bit easier.

"Yeah, it’s still very nice to get a win. Winning, we always say in golf, winning takes care of everything, and it does. It takes care of a lot of things. That’s in the past now and you just kind of move on now and you’ve got big weeks coming up.

“They just come really fast around this time of the year. It’s kind of a nice time of year to be playing your way into some decent form and some confidence.”

Lowry admitted that he’d been his own biggest critic recently for not getting the results he wanted in the last month, including his made cut but distant finish at the Masters. McIlroy’s form had been much the same. So one of the biggest takeaways from their successful partnership was giving themselves a little slack.

“I’ve probably been a little bit hard on myself the few previous weeks, and obviously the few previous weeks didn’t go well for (Rory), either,” Lowry said.

“I feel like we played golf with a lot more freedom that week and I feel like it’s a lesson for the two of us for the rest of the season, to go and play golf how we played that week in New Orleans. I feel like if we can do that, we both can be dangerous in the big tournaments.

“I just think the whole week of playing golf with a smile on your face, playing golf with a little bit of freedom goes a long way in this game. I think we both learned a lot.”

Lowry explained that sometimes expectations he places on himself can be a burden to achieving the high standards and goals he has.

“You know, obviously I did well around Florida – Honda, or Cognizant, and Bay Hill, I had two really good weeks, I was in the final group all week,” he said.

“Then you start to expect that from yourself week in and week out. Masters didn’t go my way. Hilton Head didn’t go my way. So I was getting a little bit down on myself. Not down on myself, but I knew my game and a lot of aspects of my game were very good, but I just needed to tidy up some other things.

“When you’re not shooting the scores you feel like you should be shooting, it becomes difficult. Yeah, I’ve just been hard on myself, the days were getting tougher and tougher and yeah, New Orleans sorted that.”

Valhalla is a big and long golf course (7,609 yards) with six par-4s measuring 475 yards or longer. Lowry ranks 132nd on the PGA Tour in average driving distance on all drives (288.2 yards). But he ranks 52nd in strokes gained off the tee thanks to his top ranking in driving accuracy this season (79.3 percent).

He ranks 14th in strokes gained tee to green due to sterling approach game that ranks fifth on tour in strokes gained.

When he shows up a big ballpark like Valhalla, Lowry has adjusted his mindset – which suited him better in March at Bay Hill than it did at Quail Hollow. He talked about it before last week’s Wells Fargo Championship, and despite his tough outing that same approach applies at this week at Valhalla – where Lowry tied for 46th in 2014, 15 shots behind McIlroy’s winning score of 16-under due to a pair of 3-over 74s on Friday and Saturday that took Lowry out of the running.

“I’m not short, but I’m not one of the longer guys,” he said.

“I just feel like I need to not try to be one of the longer hitters (these weeks), you kind of get what I'm saying? A lot of holes … you stand on the tee and it makes you want to hit the ball hard off the tee and I feel like if I can get the ball in play and hit the fairways I can be dangerous because my iron play is my strength. … I just need to be wary of that and just play within myself.”