2 weeks Ago By USA TODAY Sports - Golfweek
AVONDALE, La. – On Thursday, with TPC Louisiana so soft that the PGA Tour was compelled to play preferred lies (lift, clean and place), virtually no wind in the morning and two-man teams playing four-balls, birdies and eagles were flying everywhere. There was a 58, a 59 and more 62 or better rounds posted than the Zurich Classic of New Orleans had ever seen.
Friday, things changed, as teams switched to foursomes, which is commonly referred to as alternate shot. And while all eyes were on the defending champions, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, the team that started the day at the top of the leaderboard wound up staying there as the PGA Tour’s only team even on the schedule heads to the weekend. Californians Kevin Velo and Isaiah Salinda, who posted that 58 on Thursday, shot a 3-under 69 to move their overall score to 17 under, one shot better than Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin, who shot 66 in the morning to reach 16 under.
Denmark’s Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard, who are identical twins, shot a 2-under 70 on Friday and are in third place after two rounds. The top 33 teams and ties made the cut at TPC Louisiana, which wound up being the 36 teams at 10 under (134) and better on the leaderboard. That equaled the 2023 Zurich Classic cut score as the lowest in the tournament’s history.
Five things you should know Friday at the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Novak is no fluke It has been a rollercoaster ride for Andrew Novak this season, and while he’s not a household name yet, the 30-year-old from Raleigh, North Carolina, appears to be hitting his stride on the PGA Tour. After missing the cut in his first two events of the year, he earned a solo third at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in January, then missed the cut in four of his next eight starts. But after a tie for third at the Valero Texas Open, he lost to Justin Thomas in a playoff at the RBC Heritage.
After he and his partner Ben Griffin shot 62 Thursday in four-balls at the Zurich Classic, the team carded a very impressive 66 in the foursomes to reach 16 under. “Early in the year, I was doing one week decent, one week poor, some missed cuts, but I've kind of hit my stride now,” Novak said. “When I've played well, it's been really good and the putter has been better than it's ever been.
That's kind of been the one thing -- in previous years, I felt like when I got the putter going I was always going to contend. Now that the putter seems to be good darned near every week, I'm kind of contending every week.” Defending champs slipped down the stretch Coming off an opening-round 8-under 64, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry started their second round at the Zurich Classic shortly after Novak and Griffin posted their 66, so they knew that the lead at the end of the day would be at least 16 under.
On the second hole, Lowry hit a fairway wood from 242 yards out to 11 feet, and McIlroy calmly holed the eagle putt to drop the pair to 10 under. After Lowry missed a 7-foot par putt on the third hole, they got the shot back with a birdie on the fourth, and after another birdie on the seventh, McIlroy uncorked a 342-yard drive on the 379-yard eighth hole to set up another birdie and get the Irishmen to -12. That combination of shots – a massive drive from McIlroy and a deftly-hit wedge shot from Lowry – set up another birdie on 10.
A fantastic iron shot from 196 yards by Lowry to 14 feet set up another birdie putt for McIlroy, which he jarred to get the pair to 14 under. But starting on 13, the Irish team started to leak some oil. McIlroy hit under a chip shot and left the ball short of the green.
Lowry chunked a chip on the next shot, leaving McIlroy a 20-foot putt to save par, which he missed. Bogies on 17 and 18 elevated their score to 11 under, five shots off the lead. “It’s hard not to think that we were 6 under through 12 today,” McIlroy said after he and Lowry signed for their 69.
“We didn’t feel that we played that badly, to have the finish that we did. It was a couple of missed shots here and there. It’s hard.
Tomorrow will be hard to stay patient because in four-ball, with the format, you have to make as many birdies as you can, but we know that we’re really good in the foursomes format. We showed that today, for the most part. So if we can climb back and be within a few shots going into Sunday, I think we can play pretty well.
” O Captain, My Captain! European Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald teamed with two-time International Team vice-captain Camilo Villegas at the Zurich, and after an opening round 64, there was reason to be optimistic that they might make the cut and play the weekend at TPC Louisiana. But after a 3-over 75 in the foursomes on Friday pushed their team’s score to 5 under, they missed the cut. Balancing the duties of being a Ryder Cup captain with personal goals as a player is extremely hard, and Donald acknowledged that he has not done it well to this point.
“Personally, I've struggled a little bit,” he told Golfweek on Wednesday. “I've decided to play a little bit of a smaller schedule this year, playing one week and having two or three weeks off, then playing one week. It's a difficult dynamic to keep the momentum going through compared to sort of momentum you get from playing two or three weeks in a row.
” At the same time, Donald said he enjoys the duties that come with being a Ryder Cup captain, and he was pleased to see so many Europeans in the field in New Orleans. “Seems like more and more Europeans are coming and playing,” he said. “It'll be interesting to see how they do.
I'll certainly be keeping an eye. I had a few conversations earlier in the year about potential partnerships amongst some of these Europeans that I thought might work.” Wonder Twins activated The vast majority of professional golf tournaments are contested over 72 holes of stroke play, but the Zurich Classic’s team format blends four-ball and foursomes, and in the alternate-shot sessions of foursomes, it can be challenging for golfers who are used to hitting 65 to 75 shots per round to skip shots and find their rhythm.
Rasmus Hojgaard and his twin, Nicolai, are proud of the way they handled the changing weather and course conditions, and the unique format. “It's difficult. I hit a lot of drives today and had a lot of putts early on,” Rasmus said after the pair signed for 70 on Friday.
“Nic hit one of his first putts towards the end of the front nine, so it is difficult to find the speed straight away. It's hard to say how you get into a rhythm, but we managed to give ourselves a lot of good chances and not put too much pressure on each other.” Nicolai commented that compared to the ideal conditions they played in on Thursday, TPC Louisiana was trickier on Friday.
“The wind was a bit swirly,” he said. “You're playing alternate shot, so there's a consequence compared to yesterday when you can cover each other. We’re very pleased with how we hung in there today and grinded it out.
” How much harder is foursomes than four-ball? The scoring average in four-ball at the Zurich Classic (and other team events) is almost always going to be lower than foursomes because the format gives two-man teams two chances to make a birdie. Plus, if one player gets in trouble off the tee, his teammate can alter his strategy to reduce the risk that both make a bogey, so squares are rarely made on scorecards. But how much lower do scores go in four-ball compared to foursomes? In 2024, the Thursday four-ball scoring average at the Zurich Classic was 65.
31, and the Friday foursomes scoring average was 71.48, a spread of 6.17 shots.
This year, the scoring average on Thursday was 64.2 and the Friday foursomes 71.01, a difference of 6.
81 shots. This article originally appeared on Golfweek: What to know after 36 holes at 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
