If you’ve been pining for a break from the slog of stroke-play events on the PGA Tour schedule, this is your week.
On Thursday, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans kicks off at TPC Louisianna, with self-selected two-man teams playing four-ball in the first and third rounds, and foursomes in the second and final rounds. Most of the squads’ origin stories don’t require much explanation: Matt and Alex Fitzpatrck? Brothers! Jacob Skov Olesen and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen? Fellow Danes! Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak? Defending champions! But there is at least one partnership that might give you pause: Brooks Koepkaand . . . Shane Lowry?
Lowry gets it.
“To the outside it might not look like it makes sense,” he said from the tournament Wednesday, his odd-couple partner by his side, “but, you know, to us it does.”
It might appear nonsensical because we’re more accustomed to seeing Lowry and Koepka locking horns than we are leaning on one another. They’ve never gone head-to-head in a Ryder Cup match, but they have twice played in the same Ryder Cup, including in the contentious edition outside Rome in 2023. That was the week when Day 2 of the matches culminated with Lowry and other Europeans chirping Patrick Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, on the 18th green. That tension spilled into the parking lot where Lowry had to hold back McIlroy from berating Justin Thomas’s caddie, Jim “Bones” Mackay — and yet more ugliness back at the team hotel where McIlroy allegedly got into it with Koepka’s caddie, Ricky Elliott.
None of this is to say that Lowry has ever harbored any beef with Koepka or vice versa, but given the history between their camps (or at least their continents), it’s still surprising on some level to see them syncing up.
Thing is, though, Ryder Cup rivalries can evaporate quickly under the warm South Florida sun, especially in the Jupiter Island area where palms trees are outnumbered only by multimillionaire Tour pros. Patrol the Bear’s Club, Medalist or Old Palm on any Tuesday morning during an off-week and you’re likely to spot a cluster of brand-name pros from both sides of the Atlantic enjoying one another’s company, if not taking one another’s money.
“Everybody plays the same golf courses, so we see each other pretty much every other day,” Koepka said Wednesday. “I don’t go a day without seeing a guy out here, so there’s always conversations. There’s always people talking, having lunch, doing whatever, practicing together. It happens way more frequently than I think people realize.”
Also on the list of popular Tour-pro hangs in the neighborhood is Michael Jordan’s swank club, Grove XXIII, which is where Lowry and Koepka played a round together a few months back — and where Lowry popped the question.
“I said to him, ‘I might need a partner for New Orleans’” Lowry said. “He goes, ‘Well, I’m going to have to play there.’ That was it.”
Lowry played with McIlroy in the previous two Zurichs (they won together in 2024), but when McIlroy bowed out of this year’s edition, Lowry needed a date. Koepka, meanwhile, just needed starts. Since his January return from LIV Golf to the PGA Tour, he has lacked the necessary FedEx points to qualify for the Signature Events; he’s hopeful, with Lowry’s help, to improve his status this week.
Lowry and Koepka’s relationship extends beyond the borders of South Florida. They first got to know each other in 2012 and ’13 when Koepka was cutting his teeth on the DP World Tour. Lowry has known Elliot, Koepka’s looper, for even longer. When Lowry won the Open Championship in 2019, Elliott, who is from Portrush, was among a swell of well-wishers waiting to congratulate Lowry by the 18th green.
A few weeks after Lowry and Koepka’s round at the Grove, Lowry texted a follow-up note to both Elliott and Koepka to make sure they were still on for the Zurich. But Lowry said he didn’t have a firm commitment from Koepka until he ran into him several weeks later.
“I said, ‘Are we going to tee it up in New Orleans?’” Lowry said. “He said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’”
The betting sharpies like Lowry and Koepka’s chances this week, setting their odds only behind favorites Matt Fitzpatrick, who has won twice in the last month, and his brother Alex, who won the DP World Tour’s Hero Indian Open last month. And on paper Lowry and Koepka do look like a good fit.
Lowry is accurate off the tee and can work the ball in both directions. (“My job is to try and hit it in the fairway,” Lowry said.) Koepka’s iron play is nearly unrivaled (he’s 2nd in SG: Approaches). And Lowry has been holing putts (31st in SG: Putting).
The setup suits their eyes, too. “I like the way we’re going with him hitting off certain holes and me hitting off the other holes,” Koepka said. “Everybody feels comfortable on the holes that we’re going to play.” Koepka added, ”Then the best-ball side of this whole thing, he’s been playing great, so just let him go do him and stay out of the way.”
Lowry feels pretty good about his partner, too.
“He’s Brooks Koepka” Lowry said. “He’s got five majors. You know what I mean?”
This article originated on Golf.com
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