Zurich Classic Round 2: The Fitzpatrick Brothers Shoot 62 in Better Ball and Now Lead by Four — This Is Becoming a Problem for the Rest of the Field
Better ball Friday at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is the round that separates the teams who came to New Orleans to win from the teams who came to New Orleans to compete. When two players share a ball and can each take their best score on every hole, the format reveals something specific about partnerships: whose better ball is actually better, and on how many holes it matters. The Fitzpatrick brothers answered that question emphatically at TPC Louisiana on Friday. They shot a 10-under 62. They lead by four shots at 17-under through 36 holes. The rest of the field has a problem.
The 62 was built on contributions from both players in a way that underscored why brothers who grew up playing golf together produce different better-ball chemistry than any other possible pairing. Matt made seven birdies. Alex made five. Between them, 12 holes produced birdie or better, and exactly zero holes produced bogey. On a TPC Louisiana course that allows low scoring when the weather cooperates — Thursday's wind had abated, making Friday's conditions receptive — the Fitzpatricks treated it like a par-3 course.
How the Lead Was Built
The defining stretch came on the back nine, where the brothers made birdie on six of the final seven holes. Matt's 12-foot conversion on the 12th opened the run. Alex answered on the 13th from inside 10 feet. Matt's approach on 15 set up an eagle attempt from 18 feet that turned into a birdie when the putt slid by. By the time they made the turn from 18 back toward the clubhouse, four teams had been within two shots of the lead at some point during the day's second half, and all four had watched the Fitzpatricks steadily pull away.
Keegan Bradley and Jason Day — a pairing with legitimate talent and a history of individual excellence — are at 13-under in second, four back. Shane Lowry and Brooks Koepka, whose team partnership was assembled with the specific energy of a experiment that might produce either spectacular results or spectacular failure, are at 12-under in third. Both teams are capable of closing a four-shot gap over two rounds in the better-ball and foursomes format combination that constitutes Saturday and Sunday.
The Weekend's Format Math
The Zurich Classic's weekend presents a challenge that the leaders' four-shot cushion must survive through: Saturday returns to foursomes — the alternating-shot format — before Sunday returns to better ball. The psychological and technical demands of foursomes are different from better ball in ways that can disrupt teams that looked dominant on the format that favors their chemistry.
For the Fitzpatrick brothers, the foursomes format Saturday is arguably where they're most comfortable. They played it first, on Thursday, and produced a 65 that established their lead. They know each other's tendencies in alternate shot — know when to be aggressive and when to manage, know which of their respective games is sharper on a given day, and know how to communicate without the kind of verbal processing that slows other teams down.
Four shots entering the weekend at the Zurich Classic. Their lead is the biggest in the event through 36 holes this season. Sunday's better-ball final round becomes a lot more interesting if they can survive foursomes Saturday with the lead intact. The evidence suggests they can. The evidence for that evidence is: they're Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick. They've been doing this their whole lives.