The defending champions at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans are firmly in the mix, again, through 54 holes.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry fired a tremendous moving-day round of 11-under 61 with McIlroy putting a hearty exclamation point on the day. After a 90-minute weather delay due to lightning in the TPC Louisiana area, McIlroy came out of the clubhouse and onto the green to roll in a 30-foot effort for eagle.

It was a solid team day from the defending champs through Saturday’s third round, with McIlroy making five birdies plus the eagle on 18, while Lowry made three birdies of his own plus an eagle on the par-5 seventh.

“I feel like we played pretty well today, I think. There was a lot of holes where both of us had chances. We went out and we did what we had to do,” Lowry said. “We knew we were going to have to go out and shoot a really low score today.

“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.”

Despite the fact that that eagle attempt was either going to be his final or second-to-last shot of the day, McIlroy admitted he didn’t think much about it during the rain delay.

“I think the secret is not thinking about it in those 90 minutes,” McIlroy said. “We had a bit of lunch and we were watching some highlights from last year and talking about where we're going to go for dinner tonight. 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.”

No team has ever successfully defended their title at the Zurich Classic, but McIlroy and Lowry have put themselves in a great position to do exactly that. McIlroy, of course, is coming into the week with a ton of momentum and confidence having won the Masters and completed the career grand slam two weeks ago. He has two other victories this season already as well, including THE PLAYERS Championship and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Lowry has had a solid enough campaign himself as well, with three top-10s – including a runner-up to McIlroy at Pebble Beach – and his body of work, statistically, has been impressive. He sits sixth on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total.

The pair has known each other for the better part of two decades and are now neighbors in South Florida. The ease in which the two bounce off each other is a noticeable strength and the crowd was very much on their side through Saturday.

“I felt like Rory was going to give them exactly what they wanted to see,” said Cam Davis, who, paired with Adam Svensson, was grouped with Lowry and McIlroy on Saturday. Kudos to that pair, however, as they shot a matching 11-under 61 with Svensson making five birdies on his own in the first seven holes.

“I'm pretty sure most of (the crowd) were out there to watch Rory and Shane, and they played amazing golf, so they absolutely brought exactly what they were expecting,” Davis added.

McIlroy made it clear on the Golf Channel broadcast Friday evening that they were hoping to get to at least 20-under after Saturday and go from there in the Foursomes format for Sunday’s finale – which they have thrived on the last few times around TPC Louisiana.

If they aren’t leading through 54 holes they will, at least, have accomplished that mission and with a good spin again Sunday, there is a more-than-good chance they will be able to go back-to-back.

“Rory came in here a bit under the weather so he’s trying to rest up as much as he can,” Lowry said.

“But as long as we keep having fun out there,” McIlroy continued, “that’ll be the best way for us to get the best out of ourselves.”