On a day when pars felt like bogies, the 2025 Masters champion teamed with his countryman and is in contention at the birdie-filled Zurich Classic.
AVONDALE, La. – With morning temperatures in the 70s, almost no wind and golfers playing preferred lies on Thursday, which allowed them to lift, clean and place their golf ball back down in the fairway because of soft conditions, competitors in the 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans feasted on Pete Dye’s 7,425-yard TPC Louisiana course like tourists gobbling gumbo and oysters on Bourbon Street.
Since 2017, this event has been unique on the PGA Tour schedule because it features two-man teams playing four-ball (best ball) in the first and third rounds and foursomes (alternate shot) in the second and final rounds. That meant the defending champions, Rory McIlroy, who won the 2025 Masters less than two weeks ago to complete the career Grand Slam, and his partner, Shane Lowry, could be aggressive from the start.
After starting on the 10th hole, McIlroy and Lowry made birdies on three of their first four holes of the day before Lowry nearly holed out for an eagle on the par-5 18th hole. A tap-in birdie there, followed by another birdie on the first hole (their 10th) and an eagle on the second hole pushed their score to 7 under.
When Lowry holed a 23-foot birdie on the fourth hole, it felt like the defending tournament champions might surge to the top of the leaderboard, but both players hit their tee shots on the sixth hole into the water, leading to a bogey on a day when putting a square around a score instead of a circle felt like a gut punch. When they were done, McIlroy and Lowry had an 8-under 64.
“Shane got off to a really good start. I didn’t do anything,” McIlroy said with a smile after the pair signed their scorecard. “Shane joked that I could have got a couple extra hours in bed if I wanted to. But yeah, I played a bit better coming in. It was okay. We felt like we left a few shots out there, but we were just saying the two foursomes days, on Friday and Sunday here, are the important days in this tournament. It’s important for us to post a good score tomorrow.”
That 64 left the Irishmen five shots behind early leaders, Rasmus and Nicolai Hojgaard, twins from Denmark, who shot the second 59 in Zurich Classic history.
“Last year, we both had high expectations about going out and making a ton of birdies and we didn’t do that,” Rasmus Hojgaard said, “It was a bit of a wrong mindset to go into it. Now, today, we didn’t think too much about getting to a certain score or anything. It was more about creating a good vibe and create chances out there, and then we both rolled the putter well.”
Australia’s Cam Davis and his partner, Canadian Adam Svensson, were 7 under through seven holes Thursday thanks to three birdies and two eagles and finished the morning at 61.
Davis Riley and Nick Hardy teamed for an early 63, as did Kevin Chappell and Tom Hoge, and Chesson Hadley and Jonathan Byrd.
At a normal 72-hole, stroke-play event, any player who shot 63 would have been extremely pleased with the score, and Hadley and Jonathan Byrd were pleased. Still, like the other veterans in the field, they understood at the Zurich Classic, in these conditions, there was no reason to get overly excited.
“It was really easy out there today. There’s going to be a lot of low scores,” Hadley said late Thursday morning. “The course is soft, it’s lift, clean and place. The greens are absolutely perfect. You’re going to see a lot of low scores.”
To Hadley’s point, Californians Kevin Velo and Isaiah Salinda shot a 10-under 26 (that’s not a typo) for their first nine holes thanks to birdies on every hole except the 564-yard, par-5 seventh, where they made an eagle.
“Like Rory mentioned over there, I think the two foursomes days in this tournament are huge,” Lowry said, not appearing concerned about Thursday’s extremely low scores. “That’s what separates the field. Hopefully we can go out tomorrow and shoot a good score and work from there to the weekend.”
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