Beau Hossler and Wyndham Clark have never won as individuals on the PGA Tour, so maybe they can do it as a team.
Hossler, from Rancho Santa Margarita, and Clark, who played college golf at Oregon, carded a bogey-free, four-ball score of 11-under-par 61 to tie for the lead with Sean O’Hair and Brandon Matthews in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., suburb of New Orleans.
Clark (pictured left) and Hossler (right) collected five birdies on the front nine and six more on the back, making three in a row on both sides, and tied for the top spot with a final birdie on the last hole.
“Our games complement each other,” Clark said. “We both are good putters, both have a good short game, and then I kind of fade it and he kind of draws it. So, it’s a good mix.”
Said Hossler: “We played nice, both of us played nicely, and to be honest, looking back on it, we probably ham-and-egged it just about perfect, right? And we took advantage of the hardest holes, which is not easy to do out here. With that said, I think also we left a couple out there that hopefully we can get in the next few days.”
O’Hair and Matthews birdied four of the first six holes before Matthews holed a 135-yard shot for an eagle-2 on the 12th hole, and they added three more birdies on the back in their own bogey-free 61.
“Sean played really a stress-free round of golf himself, and that took a lot of pressure off me,” Matthews said. “I could attack little bit more.”
Eighth-ranked Matt Fitzpatrick and his brother, Alex, made four birdies on the first nine and added six more coming home to shoot a bogey-free 62 and were tied for second with four other teams.
Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the RBC Heritage last week by beating Jordan Spieth in a playoff, was asked if he and his brother “ham-and egged” it.
“I hate that phrase,” Matt Fitzpatrick said. “Ham and egg is so American and we’re from England. We dovetailed. It’s as much fun as I’ve had on the golf course in, well, about four days, to be fair.”
David Lipsky of La Canada Flintridge and Aaron Rai of England eagled the seventh hole and added eight birdies in another bogey-free 62 to tie for third with Sungjae Im of South Korea and Keith Mitchell had nine birdies and an eagle in one more 62; Seung-Yul Noh of South Korea and Michael Kim of San Diego and Cal birdied four straight holes through the turn in yet another bogey-free 62, and Henrik Norlander of Sweden and Luke List who had five birdies on each nine in their flawless 62.
Sahith Theegala of Chino Hills and Pepperdine, teaming with Justin Suh of San Jose and USC, eagled the seventh and 18th holes in a 63 to tie for eighth with Joseph Bramlett of Saratoga and Stanford, who teamed with Brandon Wu of Danville and Stanford to birdie the last three holes on each nine; Doc Redman and Sam Ryder, who birdied four straight holes through the turn; Troy Merritt and Robert Streb, who had an eagle and five birdies on the front nine; Martin Trainer and Chad Ramey, who had an eagle and five birdies on the back nine, and Davis Thompson and Will Gordon, who birdied five holes on the front nine.
Seventh-ranked Max Homa of Valencia and Cal and Collin Morikawa of La Canada Flintridge and Cal are tied for 43rd with a 66 that included four birdies on their last five holes, while fourth-ranked Patrick Cantlay and UCLA, playing with fifth-ranked Xander Schauffele of La Jolla and San Diego State, the defending champions, had six birdies on the back nine in a 67 and are tied for 56th.
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