Follow Live: Tiger vs. Phil hole-by-hole

Team golf. Those two words conjure images of sheer joy, of birdies and eagles, broad smiles and high-fives. The field in this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the PGA TOUR’s lone official two-man team event, went out in Thursday’s best-ball format and blistered TPC Louisiana to an average of 66.7 strokes. It was puppies and rainbows. Winning scratch tickets for all. On Friday, the format shifted to alternate-shot. Dreaded foursomes. Two players, one golf ball. On what already was a challenging day for scoring, those Thursday smiles turned into Friday grimaces and hard-bitten lower lips. Every ball deposited into watery penalty areas – and designer Pete Dye incorporated a few – represents not only individual pain, but team pain, too. It’s a multiplier. Playing for somebody else adds a tense ingredient to the team dynamic. Some players figured it out better than others. Playing in the afternoon, long bashers Tony Finau and Cameron Champ shot 4-under 68, tying the day’s low round and seizing the tournament lead 13-under 131 through 36 holes. Kris Ventura and Viktor Hovland would step up late and match them. Teammates from Norway who were on a national championship college team at Oklahoma State three years ago, Ventura and Hovland overcame a double bogey on their sixth hole (No. 16) and played their final eight holes in 4 under to shoot 69 and tie the lead heading to the weekend. A beautiful approach to 11 feet at the difficult 206-yard ninth (the team’s final hole) by Hovland would set up a rare birdie and push them to 13 under. European Ryder Cup partners Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson shot 68 despite encountering three bogeys, including one on the par-5 18th hole (their ninth of the day). They’ve played enough times in the format to exercise extra patience at times and not try to do too much, though their seven team birdies accounted for a better-than-average day’s work. The foursomes format, seldomly played outside of a handful of every-other-year cup matches (Presidents Cup, Ryder Cup, etc.), brings in more decision-making (who tees off on the odd holes?), delivers a different element of competitive pressure (hitting shots for two) and even factors in technology (golfers playing different brands of golf balls than they normally play). Stenson used a pair of “T” words to describe his Friday: Tricky, describing the format, and trust, describing his effective partnership with Rose. “Foursomes is always a tricky format,” said Stenson, the 2016 Open champion. “We know that. But it’s never going to be as tricky when you’ve got a good partner like I do. We talked about that earlier in the week, to trust, and having done this so many times before, we kind of go about things like we normally do. Yeah, we played a very solid round of foursomes out there.” Stenson and Rose each made a clutch 5-footer to open the round (Rose making his for birdie at the par-5 11th) and the pair would sandwich bogeys at 15 and 18 with two birdies. They birdied both par 5s on the front, and added another birdie at the par-4 fifth (Stenson making a 10-footer) against a lone second-nine bogey at No. 6. Rose added that as much as he wants to (and does) trust his partner, a golfer looking for success in foursomes must also keep plenty of trust in oneself, and not worry about the occasional poor shot that might leave a partner in a tough predicament. A good foursomes partnership can be like a good marriage; it’s often about never having to say you’re sorry. “I think it’s all about committing to your shots,” Rose said. “Henrik doesn’t want to hit it in the water on No. 9 and (if) he blocks it right of the green, (it) probably doesn’t do us any good anyway. But the only way he’s going to step up and hit a great shot is by not worrying about what he might leave me. I think that’s kind of the way to approach this format.” Rose and Stenson, big-time players who won Olympic gold and silver, respectively, as golf returned to the Olympic Summer Games in Brazil in 2016, form one of two major-championship winner tandems in the 80-team field. South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel form the other, and also have considerable experience playing alongside one another. (They’ve competed together at the Presidents Cup, and their friendship dates to junior golf.) Friday they made only three birdies against two bogeys, but 71 was good enough to stay in contention. They knew that going in. They are at 10-under 134. “You know, with better-ball, you play with a lot more freedom,” Oosthuizen said. “You sort of always know you have another score that can count and sort of if you fall on that score. With this format, if you make a mistake, it’s the team that’s going to make a bogey or something, and it’s stressful, especially around this golf course with a lot of water, and the wind is really picking up.” Schwartzel added that foursomes with Oosthuizen causes him other issues: “I’m not used to hitting out of so many fairways,” he said, smiling. Aussies Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith teamed up for seven birdies and an eagle in opening-day best-ball. On Friday, amid swirling winds and a TPC Louisiana layout that was becoming downright ornery, they were relieved to return to the clubhouse with a level-par score of 72. “I think foursomes is hard,” Leishman said. “You’re hitting half the shots; there’s no rhythm. You’ve got to make sure you’re loose between shots. Yeah, it’s just hard. … I was actually quite happy with even par on what was a really tough day.” Ah, but Friday evening in New Orleans, there was a sliver of light at the end of the rainbow. Saturday’s format returns to free-wheeling four-ball, a bit of a breather until those feared foursomes rear their head again on Sunday.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – It’s been an anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better kind of week so far for Paul Casey, Jordan Speith and Charles Howell III at the Wyndham Championship. The marquee group has positively dazzled through the first two rounds at Sedgefield Country Club, making a combined total of 35 birdies, one eagle and just eight bogeys. Casey has gone bogey free, shooting matching 65s, and is just one shot off the lead after chipping in for birdie at the ninth hole, his last on Friday. Howell and Spieth are tied at 9 under, two off the pace, after posting 65 and 67, respectively, in the second round. “It’s nice when you’ve got a group of guys who are feeding off each other and great energy,â€� Casey said. “We had a great crowd walking around as well. You don’t want to be in those flat groups and ours certainly wasn’t one of those, it was an exciting group to be in. “Happy I snuck ahead of the guys on the last with the chip-in, but as I said, the two guys I played with are two kind of the strong guys to look at this weekend, probably going to be two of the favorites as we move ahead.â€� Spieth acknowledged that it was unusual to find a threesome shooting a combined 28 under – as evenly divided as it could be – over two rounds. “We all had a blast,â€� he said. “I mean, different guys birdieing different holes, but when you see other putts go in, it certainly makes it look a little bigger before you even hit your putt. … “Won’t be rooting for as many putts to go in over the weekend from my players I’m playing with, but all in all, yeah, the hole looks bigger right now. I’ve got to continue to focus very much on my speed out here and certainly trust in the reads.â€� Spieth hasn’t played in the Wyndham Championship since 2013 when he lost in a playoff to Patrick Reed. He came to Greensboro this week winless since the 2017 Open Championship and ranked an uncharacteristic 67th in the FedExCup and looking to make a move. That putter – Spieth has needed just 23 putts in each of the first two rounds – has helped offset a tee-to-green game that is still a work in progress. Spieth has only hit 16 fairways and 21 greens in regulation as he continues to regain control of his swing, going through several different feels on Friday alone. “I’m still looking for a way to get the club out in front of me; it’s just behind,â€� he explained. “And from a club that’s behind, you really only have one ball flight, and if you don’t pull that ball flight off, it can go pretty far offline. It’s something that you don’t really see professionals struggle with a lot. I’ve been trying to bring myself out of a little bit of a hole with it. “You know, it seems easy to just say cast it out in front, but unfortunately, it’s just not coming that easy to me. I’ll continue to work on it. It’s better than it was a couple months ago, which is better than it was a couple months before that. “So, it’s progressing, and on a golf coursethat’s this tight, it really tests my patience level and my zeroing in.â€� Casey, for one, was pleased to see the improvement in the three-time major champion’s game up close and personal. “Well, it’s always a joy playing with him,â€� he said. “I’m loving the fact he’s playing good golf again. He’s got a smile on his face, his ball-striking and his putting are back to what we’ve seen from Jordan through the years. “You know, may be a bit late for him to make a charge at like Wyndham Rewards, but he can be a force in the FedExCup as well if he gets it going. Yeah, he’s showing glimpses of the brilliance that he is.â€� Casey came to Greensboro looking to win for the second time this season and possibly move into to fourth in the FedExCup. He tied for third the last time he played the Wyndham Championship in 2015 and says he likes his approach on a Donald Ross classic that is holding its own despite 4 inches of rain in the last two nights. “I’m just going to do more of the same,â€� Casey said. “I’ve got a really good plan for this golf course, a really good strategy, and barring, touch wood, as long as we don’t get too much crazy weather coming in, going to try to execute that plan as I did the last two days. “Hopefully, get the speed of the putts a little bit better and make a few more birdies, and then try and figure out what everybody else is doing and attack on the last nine if I need to and try and win this thing.â€�

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