He may be one of those \u201cNot a big name yet\u201d guys in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans field, but ridiculously low scores seem to follow Hayden Springer around. He shot a 59 two years ago in the 2024 John Deere Classic.<\/p>\n
Thursday, he and playing partner Alex Smalley went on a birdie (plus one eagle) binge in score-friendly conditions at TPC Louisiana. They tied the tournament record with a 14-under par 58, giving them a one-stroke lead over Davis Thompson and Austin Eckroat. Three teams \u2014 Sam Stevens and Zach Bauchou, Eric Cole and Hank Lebioda and Nick Dunlap and Gordon Sargent \u2014 were two back at 60.<\/p>\n
It was the first time for Springer and Smalley playing together in this, the PGA Tour\u2019s only regular-season team event, but Smalley and Springer had some subtle chemistry going in. Smalley\u2019s caddie, Michael Burns, used to be on the bag for Springer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re still really good friends,\u201d Smalley said. \u201cWe knew we would have a good time out there, and we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attacking the Avondale course in the more gettable best-ball format, Smalley got the team off to a rapid start with a 16\u00bd birdie putt on the par-4 first hole, an eagle from 19 feet on the par-5 second and a birdie from 6\u00bd feet on the par-3 third.<\/p>\n
Springer helped them thunder to the finish, making birdies on the final four holes to allow their team to tie the course and tournament record set by Isaiah Salinda and Kevin Velo in last year\u2019s first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve known Alex for quite a while now,\u201d Springer said. \u201cHe\u2019s an unbelievable player. To be able to team up with him is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thompson and Eckroat were idling along at 2 under through their first six holes before they arrived at their round\u2019s launch pad, the par-5 seventh. Thompson made birdie, but Eckroat eagled from 17\u00bd feet to get them to 4 under.<\/p>\n
The pair proceeded to birdie the next eight holes, four by each of them. They added another birdie on the difficult par-3 17th to break 60.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like we kind of eased our way into the round,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cMade a few birdies early, then seven through the rest of the way we just rode the momentum and made a bunch of birdies. Just road the wave and had a lot of fun out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost every player in the field could say something to that effect. Seventy-three of the 74 two-man teams broke par. Twenty-three eagles were recorded, including the ones by Smalley\/Springer and Thompson\/Eckroat, and the entire field averaged shooting nearly 8-under par (64.160).<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tournament golf, so there were frustrations. The brother team of world No. 3 Matthew Fitzpatrick, who won last week at the RBC Heritage, and Alex Fitzpatrick were at 9 under with a chance to get to double digits under par at the par-5 18th. But both hit their second shots into the alligator-infested lake running the length of the hole\u2019s right side and made bogey to shoot 64.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally disappointing way to end with two balls in perfect position,\u201d Matt Fitzpatrick said, referring to their tee shots. \u201cIt\u2019s not good enough, really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their playing partners, 2024 Zurich Classic winner Shane Lowry and five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, started well with birdies on five of their first seven holes. But they only made one more birdie after that on the par-4 10th and came home in 66, good only for a tie for 50th place.<\/p>\n
The field will be cut to the low 33 teams and ties after Friday\u2019s second round, which will be played in the more difficult alternate shot format.<\/p>\n
The Fitzpatricks, who have a lot of experience at alternate shot, being from England, hoped that would give them something of an edge on the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely feel like that helps,\u201d Matt Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n
The shot of the day came early in the round from Michael Brennan, a native of Leesburg, Virginia, and no relation to the famous New Orleans restaurant-owning Brennan family.<\/p>\n
He hit his second shot to the right of the 18th green (their ninth hole of the day) at the edge of the lake, but with teammate Johnny Keefer just short of the green in two, Brennan decided to try to blast out. He stripped off his shirt and sent water, debris and mud flying before picking up his ball. Keefer made par en route to a 61 that had them tied for sixth with a large group that included Tom Hoge and two-time Zurich champion Billy Horschel.<\/p>\n
Brennan said he didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever gone \u201cviral\u201d for anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s about to,\u201d Keefer said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was (taking a penalty drop) if I was just playing in a normal tournament,\u201d Brennan said. \u201cBut Johnny had a birdie putt so I was like, well, I guess I can try it. It was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Portions of Friday\u2019s second round will be televised on the Golf Channel and streamed on ESPN+.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He may be one of those \u201cNot a big name yet\u201d guys in the Zurich Classic of New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21980,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-54743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-hardwall","9":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116457984695271502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}