Rory McIlroy leads by one at the Abu Dhabi Championship

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The cold weather state of Massachusetts has plenty of rich golf tradition (think Francis Ouimet, 1913, and Paul Azinger was born there), but it doesn’t turn out too many professionals on the PGA TOUR. Two Bay State natives decided to team up at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and had some pretty strong results. Peter Uihlein, hot off his victory on the Korn Ferry Tour last week, joined up with Richy Werenski to tie the low round in Sunday’s foursomes format at the Zurich Classic. Even with a bogey at the par-3 17th hole, the pair made six birdies and would shoot 5-under 67 to climb 15 spots, all the way into third place at 19-under 269. (They would miss a playoff by one shot.) Only Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay matched their 67 on Sunday, which represented the low foursomes round of the week at Zurich. “It’s easy with a partner like Richy,” Uihlein said. “He drives it on a string and makes everything. So yeah, obviously I was playing well, I felt like foursomes was a pretty good game for us and coming into it we felt really good and we had a good game plan. I feel like we executed it pretty well.” Uihlein, 31, the 2010 U.S. Amateur champion and a player once ranked inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, slowly has been working his way back into form after two seasons that didn’t meet his typical standards (he had one top-10 finish in 2019 and 2020). It was Uihlein’s second strong performance in Louisiana this year – he ran second at last month’s Korn Ferry’s Chitimacha Louisiana Open (67-67-66-67) as a build-up to winning last week at the Korn Ferry’s MGM Resorts Championship at Paiute, where he shot 16-under 272. Uihlein was born in New Bedford, and Werenski in Springfield. Uihlein played at Oklahoma State, and Werenski, a little younger, played collegiately at Georgia Tech. So, what brought the two together as a two-man team, outside of the state seal on their birth certificates and a love for the Red Sox? “We have a lot in common,” Uihlein said. “He just moved to South Carolina, but I knew him in Jupiter (Florida, where they both resided and played rounds together). We grew up playing with each other, and against each other, and we know each other’s games really well. Foursomes is more our style.” They paired very nicely in foursomes, posting a pair of rounds in the 60s in the difficult format. Werenski, 29, won his first PGA TOUR title last season when he captured the Barracuda Championship. Uihlein has always admired the way Werenski strikes it tee to green, and said Werenski’s solid putting helped to free him up this week. Werenski had a chuckle upon hearing Uihlein heap so much praise on his game. “He says I played good, but he carried the team,” Werenski said. “He knows it. But we had a great time. I love coming to this one, Louisiana is fun, so we had a great week, and looking forward to next year.”

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