Three birdies and a bogey for a scorecard of 70 strokes, playing in alternate shot format, have been enough for the Spaniard Jorge Campillo and the Swede Vincent Norrman (-8) to climb 12 positions in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans ranking, a pairs tournament of the PGA Tour that is being held in Louisiana, and they just made the cut to continue playing over the weekend.
Yesterday’s high production of birdies in fourballs forced this unexpected pair to avoid mistakes this Friday, where the scores were going to be much higher. And taking advantage of two of the par fives on the course and with a great birdie on the par three of hole 3, they managed to reach the eight under par that has finally established the forty pairs that will fight for the final victory in Avondale over the next two days.
And we say that there will be forty pairs seeking this valuable title, which in addition to a check for 1,286,050 dollars for each member of the winning team grants two years of exemption on the tour, because the distances have been reduced almost to the maximum. Among the four pairs that lead the ranking, with 13 under par, and the last ones to make the cut, tied in 32nd place, there are only five strokes of margin, a trifle considering that tomorrow the fourballs return.
Beauty from the beach 🏖️@ShaneLowryGolf and @McIlroyRory jump to the top of the leaderboard @Zurich_Classic. pic.twitter.com/rKL7ltLuIb
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) April 26, 2024
For Campillo it would be a real blast to get into the fight for the win, something that will depend on what he is capable of doing tomorrow on ‘moving day’ alongside Norrman. But in any case, this week can serve him to try to achieve a great result that helps him increase his chances of maintaining playing rights for next season. However, the comeback cannot wait because the fight to win will be fierce, with some tour stars involved.
Among them, Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, who playing with his compatriot Shane Lowry (-13) has managed to maintain the co-leadership he achieved yesterday in the four-ball matches. Rai and Lipsky (-13), Thompson and Novak (-13), as well as Brehm and Hubbard (-13) share with them that first position to which other favourites also aspire such as Cantlay and Schauffele (-12), the Fitzpatrick brothers (-10) and Morikawa and Kitayama (-8), who like the defending champions, Riley and Hardy (-8), will start this Saturday with the same disadvantage as Jorge and Vincent.
