After a twin bill of the Masters and the signature-event RBC Heritage, the PGA Tour enters a quieter couple weeks with a trip to New Orleans and Texas.
But don’t sleep on the Zurich Classic in the Big Easy—it’s a one-of-a-kind week.
The Zurich is the Tour’s two-man team game, a format more representative of weekend matches at your club than the cutthroat stroke play that is the weekly pro staple. Pairs play the first round in a four-ball format (best score of the two balls) and second round at alternate shot, then repeat on the weekend if making the cut.
Do friends make for better teams? Recent history would suggest yes. Irishmen Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy won in a playoff last year; McIlroy of course being a headliner in his first trip to New Orleans. He’ll be even more popular in returning as a newly minted Masters champ.
The year before that, longtime friends Nick Hardy and Davis Riley won (and are in the field again). In 2022, another pair of friends in Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele won, while in 2021 Australian mates (and now LIV golfers) Marc Leishman and Cam Smith won at TPC Louisiana.
Collin Morikawa is the other top-10 player in the field alongside McIlroy, and is playing with Kurt Kitayama. There are also two teams of brothers: Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick and Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard.
The purse is $9.2 million and the winning pair each get $1,329,400 (splitting the first- and second-place money from a regular Tour pay table). No world ranking points are available but the standard two-year exemption similar to regular Tour events is awarded, along with 400 FedExCup points.
Here are the teams:
2025 Zurich Classic full field
80 teams
Clark, Wyndham -- Moore, Taylor
Fitzpatrick, Matt -- Fitzpatrick, Alex *
Morikawa, Collin -- Kitayama, Kurt
Woodland, Gary -- Hodges, Lee
McIlroy, Rory -- Lowry, Shane
Horschel, Billy -- Hoge, Tom
Bhatia, Akshay -- Young, Carson
Davis, Cam -- Svensson, Adam
Detry, Thomas -- MacIntyre, Robert
Echavarria, Nico -- Greyserman, Max
Garnett, Brice -- Straka, Sepp
Gotterup, Chris -- Cummins, Quade
Hardy, Nick -- Riley, Davis
Highsmith, Joe -- Tosti, Alejandro
Kim, Si Woo -- Bae, Sangmoon
Kizzire, Patton -- Kohles, Ben
Knapp, Jake -- Capan III, Frankie
List, Luke -- Norlander, Henrik
Malnati, Peter -- Knox, Russell
McCarty, Matt -- Andersen, Mason
Pavon, Matthieu -- Perez, Victor
Poston, J.T. -- Mitchell, Keith
Rai, Aaron -- Theegala, Sahith
Taylor, Nick -- Hadwin, Adam
van Rooyen, Erik -- Bezuidenhout, Christiaan
Vegas, Jhonattan -- Yu, Kevin
Vilips, Karl -- Thorbjornsen, Michael
Villegas, Camilo -- Donald, Luke
Wallace, Matt -- Olesen, Thorbjørn
Kisner, Kevin -- Sigg, Greyson
Palmer, Ryan -- Johnson, Zach
Snedeker, Brandt -- Reavie, Chez
Merritt, Troy * -- Streb, Robert *
Byrd, Jonathan * -- Hadley, Chesson *
Paul, Yannik * -- Paul, Jeremy
Saunders, Sam * -- Cole, Eric
Taylor, Ben * -- Skinns, David
Canter, Laurie * -- Smith, Jordan *
Schenk, Adam -- Duncan, Tyler
Griffin, Ben -- Novak, Andrew
Hubbard, Mark -- Brehm, Ryan
Hossler, Beau -- Putnam, Andrew
Lower, Justin -- Ramey, Chad
Ghim, Doug -- Kim, Chan
Fishburn, Patrick -- Blair, Zac
Hoey, Rico -- Ryder, Sam
Stevens, Sam -- McGreevy, Max
Hoffman, Charley -- Watney, Nick
Hisatsune, Ryo -- Kanaya, Takumi
Phillips, Chandler -- Bridgeman, Jacob
Lipsky, David -- Wu, Dylan
Whaley, Vince -- Albertson, Anders
Meissner, Mac -- Goodwin, Noah
Højgaard, Nicolai -- Højgaard, Rasmus
Silverman, Ben -- Valimaki, Sami
Lashley, Nate -- Springer, Hayden
Fox, Ryan -- Higgo, Garrick
Smalley, Alex -- Bramlett, Joseph
Dahmen, Joel -- Higgs, Harry
Cauley, Bud -- Tway, Kevin
Mullinax, Trey -- Shelton, Robby
Gordon, Will -- Riedel, Matthew
Gerard, Ryan -- Walker, Danny
Salinda, Isaiah -- Velo, Kevin
Ventura, Kris -- Rozner, Antoine
Svensson, Jesper -- Norgaard, Niklas
Fisk, Steven -- Widing, Tim
Roy, Kevin -- Cone, Trevor
Griffin, Lanto -- Champ, Cameron
Castillo, Ricky -- Mouw, William
Suber, Jackson -- Coody, Pierceson
Chandler, Will -- NeSmith, Matt
Peterson, Paul -- Rosenmueller, Thomas
Manassero, Matteo -- Del Solar, Cristobal
Pak, John -- Montgomery, Taylor
Hoshino, Rikuya -- Onishi, Kaito
Dickson, Taylor -- Crowe, Trace
Buckley, Hayden -- Thornberry, Braden
Laird, Martin -- Haas, Bill
*sponsor exemptions
This article was originally published on www.si.com as 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Full Field: Rory McIlroy Returns to PGA Tour Team Event.
