Rory McIlroy was tickled by a comment from Shane Lowry during a joint press conference ahead of the Zurich Classic. The duo have teamed up once again for the paired event and will be looking to defend the title they won last year. It will be McIlroy’s first outing since his glorious Masters triumph and the Northern Irishman is unlikely to be short on confidence.

Lowry, meanwhile, will be hoping to perform at his brilliant best to ensure another memorable weekend in New Orleans. They are the early title favourites but will need to overcome stiff competition in order to claim the spoils. Matt Fitzpatrick will partner his brother Alex, while the Hojgaard brothers Rasmus and Nicolai have also formed a team.

McIlroy and Lowry took part in a joint press conference on Wednesday to preview the event and discuss their chances of winning. Most of the attention was naturally on McIlroy, following his incredible victory at Augusta National earlier this month.

Lowry, however, fielded several questions of his own and was left pleasantly surprised that his playing partner was not the sole focus. He quipped: “I’ve actually got more questions than I thought I was gonna get,” which left McIlroy in stitches.

The former Open champion also spoke about McIlroy’s heroics at the Masters, admitting that he thought it would be difficult to convince the 35-year-old to play at the Zurich Classic.

On the final day of the tournament at Augusta, Lowry turned to his caddie Darren Reynolds after McIlroy double-bogeyed the 13th hole before going on to stage a momentous comeback.

He explained: “I said to Darren: ‘No matter what happens the next few holes, I think we’re going to do well to get him to New Orleans’.

“If things didn’t go his way, I didn’t think he’d want to be here, and I thought if things did go his way, he’d want to be somewhere else.”

McIlroy, meanwhile, has not played much golf since receiving his green jacket and woke up on Monday with a nasty cold. But he is still hopeful that his Masters form will carry over into the Zurich Classic this weekend.

“I honestly could not be in a better place in my life, professionally, personally, all of it,” said McIlroy. “It’s amazing what a year can do.

“This tournament last year was a really cool moment for both of us. I think it probably injected a little bit of joy back into golf for me in some way, which I think is really, really important, not to lose that.

“I had a great year last year, and I think this tournament was sort of the catalyst to the really good golf that I played for the rest of the year.”