Biggest underachievers Thursday at the Zurich Classic?
Easy answer — world No. 2 Collin Morikawa and his partner, world No. 4 Viktor Hovland.
On paper, the two young super-stars in the making were the best team in the field this week at the Zurich Classic. For their first nine holes, they played up to that billing. For their final nine, they looked like Laurel and Hardy.
They were half of the mornings feature group, playing with defending champions Cam Smith and Marc Leishman — the Aussie duo. The feature foursome started on the back nine at TPC Louisiana and both Morikawa and Hovland birdied the first two holes. They both flopped and bogeyed the par four 12th. But Morikawa put them back on track in a big way when he holed out his wedge shot approach at the 13th from 94 yards for eagle.
The young stars regained their momentum and went on to shoot a six-under par 30 that put them in the thick of it. But something must have happened at the turn because their final nine holes were as bad as the first nine were good. The only birdies they came up with were on the two par fives and both made bogey at the fourth and they shot “go to the back of the class” 35 for that nine.
Still, they kept themselves in line to make the top 33 on Friday as both are used to playing the alternate shot format. Morikawa was on the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team at Whistling Straits while Hovland was on the losing European side. Still, both have experience in the toughest of the formats this week.
As for their playing partners — Smith and Leishman — they weren’t all that sharp either and finished at seven-under for the day.
Lipsky Wrecked His Courtesy Car:
David Lipsky and partner Aaron Rai were two shots off the lead on Thursday after combining for 61 and Lipsky’s week got off to a shaky start on Tuesday when he got rear-ended heading to the course. “I’m fine,” Lipsky said. “I was driving here on Tuesday morning, and there was a car right in front of me that had broke down, so I started changing lanes, and the guy behind me, I guess, wasn’t paying attention and slammed on the brakes and smoked me.”
Decent Showing For Palmer And Scheffler:
Masters champion Scottie Scheffler got back into action with fellow Texas Ryan Palmer. The world’s No. 1 had a solid day and the duo finished at eight-under thanks to Scheffler’s birdie at the closing par five 18th. Both Scheffler and Palmer had four birdies on their respective scorecards.
Taylor Moore Fights Food Poisoning:
Taylor Moore and Matthew NeSmith were the surprise early leaders at 12-under par, especially when you take into consideration that Moore spent Wednesday morning at a local emergency room.
“I had food poisoning Tuesday night up until midday yesterday. So just got an IV and some nausea medicine. Finally ate something this morning, which was nice,” Moore explained. “I just tried to finish every hole. That was kind of a win within its own right.
“No more Cajun for the next couple days, but some soup sounds pretty good at the moment,” Moore laughed. “Soup and crackers.”
Jay Haas, Bill Haas Shoot 65:
Longest of the long-shots in the field is the father-son team of Jay and Bill Haas. Bill has been struggling on the PGA Tour and is playing this year on a one-time money list exemption. He’s had just one top 25 finish in 18 starts. Jay is playing on the regular tour for the first time since 2010.
Still, they combined for a seven-under par 65 on Thursday to put themselves in position to make it to the weekend with a decent day on Friday.
If they Haas team makes the cut, Jay will make PGA Tour history as the oldest player to make a cut. The record is held by Sam Snead. Snead was 67 when he made the cut at the 1979 Westchester Classic. Jay Haas is 68 years-old.
