Sports

Rory McIlroy sang Journey in New Orleans. He also won the golf tournament

Published

2 years ago

April 29, 2024

Rory McIlroy sang Journey in New Orleans. He also won the golf tournament

NEW ORLEANS — Rory McIlroy is on the TPC Louisiana 19th green stage with a beer in one hand and a microphone in the other. He’s got Mardi Gras beads around his neck standing next to one of his best friends, Shane Lowry, and the drunken New Orleans crowd keeps chanting.

“Rory! Rory! Rory!”

“Do you know any songs from the 80s?” the bandleader asks.

And then Journey starts playing.

The four-time major champ belted out “Don’t Stop Believing” early Sunday evening, tossing his head back to put his chest into the notes. Lowry just laughed and drank his beer watching his buddy make a fool of himself. As he walked off moments later, Lowry answered why he didn’t join — “I would have sung much better.”

McIlroy just won a golf tournament. And he needed to win a golf tournament. But far, far more than he needed anything on a scorecard, he needed this week. McIlroy needed to have fun.

This is not a drill. Rory McIlroy singing Don’t Stop Believing pic.twitter.com/y5PkEDoqo4
— Brody Miller (@BrodyAMiller) April 28, 2024

This all began with a “really drunken lunch” after their Ryder Cup win last fall. McIlroy asked Lowry if they could team up for the Zurich Classic — the PGA Tour’s only team event. Lowry has played this event before but, fearful of rejection, never asked McIlroy to team up. McIlroy sent Lowry a Christmastime text confirming. He was coming to New Orleans.

Fast forward to Saturday night, and just off Bourbon Street in the French Quarter at a classic white tablecloth Creole joint called Arnaud’s, McIlroy and Lowry received a standing ovation from the other diners. This isn’t even some casual weekend in Louisiana. It’s Jazz Fest. It’s NFL Draft week. The Pelicans are in the playoffs. Yet the people were so psyched to have the No. 2 player in the world they filled TPC Louisiana with the largest galleries anyone can recall and applauded them at restaurants. One TV reporter joked the last athlete to receive that was Reggie Bush nearly two decades ago.

“It was weird for me,” Lowry said. “That stuff doesn’t happen to me.”

“It doesn’t happen to me, either!” McIlroy joked.

“He’s getting old,” Lowry said with a cheeky grin. “But he can still move the needle a little bit. Rory brings a crowd, and people love him.”

A little context. McIlroy isn’t having a very good season. It became a running gag last week that Scottie Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, is outearning McIlroy in 2024. And McIlroy has been having a stressful few years. He was the face of the PGA Tour in its war with LIV and the most public-facing policy board member. Then, he got blindsided by the PGA Tour entering into a framework agreement with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (LIV’s owners), calling himself a “sacrificial lamb” as they sent him to speak to the media the next day.

He then reportedly lost a power battle over the future of the tour to Patrick Cantlay and decided to leave the board, with Sports Illustrated reporting Cantlay and others like Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth focused more on catering to the tour’s elites. McIlroy then changed his tune and campaigned for unification with LIV. He rubbed people the wrong way, criticizing Spieth publicly for saying the PGA Tour didn’t “need” the Saudis. He consistently made comments about the desire for money ruining the sport. He got in an awkward incident at the Players Championship with playing partners Spieth and Viktor Hovland.

Oh, and the golf has suffered. It’s all relative. He’s still top 30 nearly every week, but has just one PGA Tour finish better than 19th all season. When he finished T22 at the Masters two weeks ago, he got questions about whether he needed to blow up his swing and do a full reset.

Then, he went to New Orleans.

McIlroy was not locked in this week, at least not for most of the week. This week was about having fun with his old buddy Shane. They didn’t even practice when they got in Tuesday because the course was too busy, so they messed around at the chipping green instead. During the Wednesday Pro-Am, they hardly even played every other shot. They seemed to hit when they felt like it while walking and talking the rest. They crushed chargrilled oysters from Drago’s on the 10th hole and teased each other.

Who knows how worried they even were as they entered the seventh hole Sunday five back of the leaders. Yes, they’re competitors and want to win, but they were just going with the flow.

Then, McIlroy got hot. Playing alternate shot, they birdied four of the next five holes to get one back. McIlroy dropped a saucy little club twirl that he hasn’t shown in years on a perfect iron shot on 14. And right around that time, he clearly started to want it a bit more. When he put his drive on 16 into a bunker, he bent over and held his head down for a full minute in frustration.

But no worries. Lowry hit a perfect wedge from the bunker to the center of the green, and McIlroy hit a wide-breaking putt to take a share of the lead.

On the par-3 17th, Lowry’s tee shot flew into the crowd and he later missed a tough par putt. He was visibly disappointed with himself, but McIlroy speedily chased him off the green to say, “Hey, Shane. That was a good putt.”

“Rory is there backing me up this week,” Lowry said, “and he was a great teammate, and he made me believe in myself. It was good to have him there to do that.”

They then birdied 18 to send it to a playoff, and thanks to a missed putt by Martin Trainer in the playoff, McIlroy won his 25th PGA Tour tournament and Lowry earned himself a spot in the remaining PGA Tour signature events. Teamwork.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry chased down Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer on Sunday in the Zurich Classic. (Stephen Lew / USA Today)

Yeah, maybe McIlroy was the key to the win this week, but there’s a chance Lowry was the key to a much-needed week for McIlroy. Because he admitted this week was about getting away from the stress.

“Absolutely,” he said. “The reason that Shane and I both started to play golf is because we thought it was fun at some stage in our life. I think sort of reinjecting a little bit of that fun back into it in a week like this week, it can always help.”

And as the event finished, tournament organizers could be seen celebrating the coup of one of the game’s biggest stars winning and possibly coming back next year to defend his title. This isn’t exactly one of the tour’s bigger events. They’d kill for McIlroy in the field again. So he was asked, “Has anyone started trying to sell you on returning?”

“I don’t think they need to try,” McIlroy said. “I think we’re coming back.”

(Top photo: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

Sports

Sherrone Moore appears red-eyed in booking photo after Michigan firing, arrest

Published

2 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Sherrone Moore appears red-eyed in booking photo after Michigan firing, arrest

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Sherrone Moore’s booking photo was released about a week after the former Michigan Wolverines football coach was fired from his job and arrested on several charges.

Fox News Digital obtained the booking photo of Moore on Thursday. The picture showed a red-eyed Moore appearing downcast in the Washtenaw County Jail in Michigan.

Sherrone Moore’s booking photo was obtained by Fox News Digital on Dec. 18, 2025. (Washtenaw County Jail)

The photo’s release came as new details emerged in the Moore scandal, including allegations that he “had a long history of domestic violence” against the staffer with whom he allegedly maintained an inappropriate, yearslong relationship.

Court documents obtained by Fox News Digital revealed allegations made by the staffer’s attorney, Heidi Sharp, on the day that Moore allegedly entered her home without permission, which later resulted in his arrest.

Moore appeared in a Washtenaw County court on Friday, where his bond was set at $25,000 and included several conditions, including no contact with the alleged victim in the case. A not guilty plea was entered for him.

Prosecutors detailed the alleged events that led up to Moore’s arrest, including that Moore had engaged in an “intimate relationship” with the Michigan staffer for “a number of years” and that the woman had broken up with him two days before his arrest.

Former Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore appears via video in court in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Dec. 12, 2025. (Ryan Sun/AP Photo)

MICHIGAN FOOTBALL RECRUITS DE-COMMIT FROM PROGRAM AMID SHERRONE MOORE SCANDAL

Prosecutors accused Moore of contacting the staffer via phone calls and texts after the breakup, prompting the victim to contact the University of Michigan and cooperate in its investigation. Moore was subsequently fired from his position as head football coach, which prosecutors said prompted him to show up at the woman’s home.

Moore then allegedly “barged” his way into the residence, grabbed a butter knife and a pair of scissors and then began threatening his own life. According to prosecutors, Moore allegedly told the staffer, “My blood is on your hands” and “You ruined my life.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Moore’s attorney for comment.

Moore faces a felony charge of home invasion in the third degree and two misdemeanor charges of stalking and breaking and entering without the owner’s permission. He was released on bond and is due back in court on Jan. 22.

Sherrone Moore, then-of the Michigan Wolverines, looks on during the second half against the Maryland Terrapins at SECU Stadium on November 22, 2025 in College Park, Maryland. (Chris Bernacchi/Diamond Images via Getty Images)

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Moore took over as head coach for Jim Harbaugh when he left to take the Los Angeles Chargers’ job.

Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj contributed to this report.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.

Sports

High school basketball: Boys’ and girls’ scores from Wednesday, Dec. 17

Published

2 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

High school basketball: Boys’ and girls’ scores from Wednesday, Dec. 17

HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

BOYS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 59, Sun Valley Magnet 38
Bernstein 71, Contreras 26
Crenshaw 55, King/Drew 39
Fulton 50, Vaughn 48
Hollywood 104, Belmont 10
LA Hamilton 71, Downtown Magnets 69
MSAR 67, Valor Academy 56
MSCP 84, Larchmont Charter 25
Northridge Academy 59, VAAS 12
Orthopaedic 69, Animo Bunche 34
RFK Community 73, Jefferson 70
Royal 54, Mendez 52
View Park 55, Bell 48
Wilmington Banning 62, Elizabeth 26

SOUTHERN SECTION
Arroyo 54, South El Monte 50
Chadwick 91, Paramount 63
Damien 66, Aquinas 41
Downey 57, Workman 22
Edgewood 52, West Covina 43
Flintridge Prep 80, ISLA 15
Gabrielino 91, Mountain View 46
Garden Grove 58, Irvine University 56
Hemet 56, Valley View 55
Highland 68, Lancaster 34
Hillcrest 57, Orange Vista 56
Indian Springs 64, Citrus Valley 55
Laguna Beach 70, Costa Mesa 46
Lakeside 54, Canyon Springs 50
La Palma 69, Westminster 18
Maricopa 47, Laton 17
Moreno Valley 52, Arlington 42
North Torrance 75, Bellflower 30
Pasadena Marshal 75, El Monte 51
Peninsula 65, Redondo Union 63
Perris 63, Riverside North 62
Pilgrim 71, Westmark 39
Public Safety Academy 51, River Springs Charter 44
Quartz Hill 76, Antelope Valley 44
Redondo Union 76, Peninsula 18
Riverside King 61, Chaparral 55
Riverside Poly 54, Liberty 43
Samueli Academy 49, Bolsa Grande 48
San Fernando Academy 71, Summit View 19
Segerstrom 66, Loara 38
Sierra Vista 62, Covina 58
Temple City 51, El Rancho 46
Thousand Oaks 65, Shalhevet 38
Torrance 76, El Segundo 37
Vista del Lago 57, Heritage 51

INTERSECTIONAL
Dorsey 60, Lawndale 55
Grace 68, Panorama 34
LA Roosevelt 42, Alhambra 39
San Gabriel 50, Maywood CES 23
Westchester 48, Compton Centennial 36

GIRLS
CITY SECTION
AMIT 25, Sun Valley Magnet 20
Bernstein 56, Contreras 13
Cleveland 64, North Hollywood 24
Hollywood 63, Belmont 13
King/Drew 60, Crenshaw 12
Larchmont Charter 36, MSCP 33
MSAR 42, Valor Academy 29
Orthopaedic 28, Animo Bunche 5
Rancho Dominguez 31, Elizabeth 20
South East 51, Lakeview Charter 23
Washington 65, Fremont 10

SOUTHERN SECTION
Agoura 65, Simi Valley 38
Buena Park 78, Westminster 29
Citrus Valley 43, Indio 24
Covina 56, Garey 25
CSDR 71, Victor Valley 33
El Modena 37, Edison 29
Flintridge Prep 85, Westridge 9
Gabrielino 81, Mountain View 4
Hemet 51, Valley View 24
Jurupa Valley 29, Indian Springs 20
Knight 81, Littlerock 8
Lancaster 60, Highland 40
Laton 29, Maricopa 8
Liberty 59, Citrus Hill 28
Los Altos 59, Anaheim 42
Los Amigos 39, Saddleback 19
Mira Costa 54, West Torrance 50
Newbury Park 53, Oxnard Pacifica 34
Oxnard 50, Santa Paula 42
Quartz Hill 57, Antelope Valley 18
Rancho Verde 46, Perris 19
Ramona 56, Gahr 29
Rancho Christian 100, Heritage 41
Riverside North 47, Vista del Lago 34
Riverside King 63, Xaxier Prep 38
Riverside Poly 73, Paloma Valley 38
River Springs Charter 35, Public Safety Academy 15
San Gabriel 46, Edgewood 26
San Gabriel Academy 63, Compton Centennial 62
Savanna 52, Costa Mesa 38
South El Monte 24, Arroyo 21
Thousand Oaks 69, Shalhevet 39
Torrance 74, El Segundo 36
Upland 44, Rosemead 27
Woodbridge 48, Century 6
Yorba Linda 64, Placentia Valencia 44

Sports

Josh Allen reflects on growth he’s made since joining Bills and becoming expectant father

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Josh Allen reflects on growth he’s made since joining Bills and becoming expectant father

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Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has had a terrific 2025.

He and his wife, actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld, got married in June and last week he announced the two were expecting their first child together. Not to mention, he started the year being awarded the NFL MVP trophy.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) passes against the New England Patriots during the second half of an NFL football game in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Allen expressed some appreciation for how he’s grown as a person since he arrived in Buffalo in 2018 as his life took him from a small town in California to Wyoming to the NFL and on the brink of leading a championship-starved city to a Super Bowl appearance.

“Yeah, I guess it’s like the evolution of life,” he said Wednesday. “I consider this place my home. It’s where I’ve done a lot of growing up. And it’s a place that I’ll raise a family. It’s really cool.”