Avondale, LA — Windham Clarke, Bo Hossler, Sean O’Hare and Brandon Matthews each hit an 11-under 61 in a best-ball format Thursday to tie the game and take a one-stroke lead through the first half. Zurich Classic Tour.
O’Hair, 40, has won four PGA Tour titles, most recently in 2011. Matthews, 28, has never finished higher than 35.
The highlight of their circuit—if not the entire day—was Matthews’ eagle on the par 4 12th hole. He fired a 313-yard drive into the fairway, then drilled a wedge from 135 yards.
“Sean played a really stress-free round of golf, and that took a lot of pressure off me,” Matthews said. “I can attack a little more.”
Clark and Hossler combined for 11 birdies—seven from Hossler—at TPC Louisiana.
While the 28-year-old Hossler and 29-year-old Clark haven’t won a PGA Tour win between them, both have had several top-20 finishes this season. Clarke finished 5th in the Valspar Championship. Hossler tied for eleventh in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“Our games complement each other,” Clark said. “We’re both good batters, we both have a good short game, and then I kind of fade and he just kind of draws it in. So, it’s a good combination.”
Matt Fitzpatrick, triumphed last weekend at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina, with his younger brother, Alex, for a score of 62 — tied with four other teams.
“It’s about as much fun as I’ve had on the golf course, well, about four days, to be fair,” said Matt Fitzpatrick.
Also cast as 62 are Sungjae Im, Keith Michell, David Lipsky, Aaron Rai, Luke List, Henrik Norlander, Michael Kim, and Seung-yul Noh. Noh won the TPC Louisiana in 2014, before the tournament became a team event.
Ray carried his team with an eagle and seven birds.
Six teams were two points off the lead, including tandem Sahth Thigala and Justin Suh. There were over a dozen eagles across the field on a dry, sunny and windy day – two from Theegala on the 7th and 18th, both 5s. Theegala also made a 69-foot birdie from the sidelines in the ninth over.
The 24-year-old Alex Fitzpatrick is a former Wake Forest player who turned professional last June and plays mainly on Europe’s second-tier Challenge Tour. To play Zurich, he needed a sponsors exemption, which tournament organizers gladly granted to guarantee the participation of his 28-year-old brother, also the reigning US Open champion.
Alex, who could earn a PGA Tour card with a win, dragged his weight around a Pete Dye-designed, 7,425-yard course built in the Cypress Swamps outside New Orleans.
The Fitzpatrick brothers each made five birdies, and Alex made three in a row over the last five holes in the English tandem.
“He played great on the defensive nine, and he saved me a few times,” said Matt Fitzpatrick.
Play switches to the more challenging alternate shot format for the second round on Friday. After the cut, the shape would go back to a better ball for the third round and back to an alternate shot for the final round.
Sam Burns and Billy Horschel were among the 16 teams to shoot 64. Burns and Horschel were runners-up in Zurich a year ago, finishing two shots back.
Burns twice reached 5 greens in two (in the 7th and 18th). But he missed both eagles. Their eight birdies were highlighted by a 30-foot hit from Horschel.
“It was a good tour, but also a frustrating one,” Burns said. “Other than Bailey hitting the 3, we didn’t put in much. I would say we played better than we hit.”
Defending champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele got off to a slow start and pared 1 through six before birdies on six of the next seven holes. But they alternated between bogey and birdie on their last four holes to finish at 5-under.