Zurich Classic<\/a> after two rounds of competition.<\/p>\nThe pair of 29-year-old Americans entered Friday\u2019s competition with a one-stroke lead and managed to maintain it with a roller-coaster round of 72 during hot, blustery playing conditions at the TPC of Louisiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we scrambled pretty well and hung in there,\u201d said Springer after the team\u2019s five-birdie, three-bogey round.<\/p>\n
Smalley and Springer can\u2019t afford to rest on their laurels. Nine teams lurk within two shots of the lead, including the imposing team of Alex and Matt Fitzpatrick at 15-under.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think we should deviate from our game plan from Thursday, because it seemed like it worked pretty well,\u201d said Smalley, who, like Springer, is looking for his first win on the PGA Tour. \u201cJust try to get as many balls in play off the tee as we can, get as many birdie looks as we can and just kind of go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thirty-five teams made the cut at 10-under-par 134. Among the notables who failed to make the cut: Shane Lowry and Brooks Koepka, the field\u2019s most accomplished team, who missed the cut by one stroke at 9-under 135; Tony Finau and Matt Greyserman (9-under); and Charley Hoffman and Nick Watney (2-under 142).<\/p>\n
Best ball play in Saturday\u2019s third round will start at 9:58 a.m., with the leaders scheduled to tee off at 11:50 a.m. Tournament officials pushed back the tee times because of potential rain forecast for the area on Saturday morning. To expedite play, teams will split starts from Hole Nos. 1 & 10.<\/p>\n
Scoring during Friday\u2019s alternate-shot play was not easy. Rising temperatures throughout the day dried the greens and stoked Southerly crosswinds to 14-mile-per-hour gusts, forcing players to be creative with their drives and approach shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wore my 4- and 5-iron out today,\u201d said Nick Dunlap, who, along with teammate Gordon Sargent, is two strokes back at 14-under. \u201cThere’s not just a couple of good shots you have to hit. There’s a very good amount.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fitzpatrick brothers took advantage of their early tee time to record the low round of the day, a 7-under 65 highlighted by some stellar putting from each brother.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe played great today,\u201d said Matt Fitzpatrick, the world\u2019s No. 3-ranked player, who entered the tournament on a hot streak after winning the RBC Heritage last week. \u201cWe barely missed a shot. Made the putts when we needed to, made some good birdie looks, and yeah, just felt like we played really solid all around today.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Fitzpatricks caught fire after eagling the 585-yard, par-5 No. 18 to finish their opening nine holes in 4-under-par 32. They maintained the momentum on their final nine, birdying Hole Nos. 1, 2, 5 and 7 to surge into contention.<\/p>\n
Teaming for the fourth consecutive year at the event, the Fitzgeralds comfort and familiarity with the TPC of Louisiana tract was evident as they played before a large, enthusiastic gallery for 18 holes.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously playing here as a family has been great,\u201d Alex Fitzpatrick said. \u201cSince we first came here four years ago now, you guys have made us incredibly welcomed. Almost like took us in with open arms. Coming here every year is exciting, and we always look forward to it. So now it’s almost like a bit of a second home, we like it that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Zurich also feels like home for Billy Horschel, who, with teammate Tom Hoge, is one stroke back at 15-under. Horschel recorded his PGA Tour victory here in 2013 and is playing in his 14th Zurich Classic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis tournament does mean a lot to me,\u201d said Horschel, who teamed with Scott Piercy to win the 2018 Zurich Classic. \u201cI’ve created a lot of special relationships with the fans here, and I’ve got a lot of close friends. Coming here I’ve always felt like it was like a second home to me. I always want to play well, and it’s nice that we’re in a good position going into the weekend to, you know, do something special and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So far, so good for Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer. Their lead is precarious, but they\u2019re still on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[21980,307,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-55307","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zurich","8":"tag-hardwall","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-zurich"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116462231548191194","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55307","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=55307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}