The PGA Tour lands this week at the TPC Louisiana for the celebration of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a different tournament. It is played in pairs, two rounds alternate shot and two others best ball. It does not count for the world ranking, but it does add up for the FedEx Cup and its victory, of course, is official for both players.
There we will have the Extremaduran Jorge Campillo, who will play with the Swede Vincent Norrman. A curious pair born from the contact they have had this year on the PGA Tour. They have forged a very good relationship. The Nordic golfer was born on Christmas Eve 1997 in Stockholm, lives in Florida and his partner is Frida Kinhult, professional golfer and sister of also player Marcus Kinhult.
Norrman has won two tournaments in his career, both last year between the months of July and September. He prevailed at the Barbasol Championship, hybrid week valid for the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour, and at the Irish Open. In fact, his name came up as one of the possible outsiders to enter the European team of the Ryder Cup.
However, his 2024 is not going well. He has played nine tournaments, has missed four cuts and his best result has been a 45th at the Valero Texas Open, precisely the last week he has played, just before the Augusta Masters. Last year he played the Zurich with Austrian Matthias Schwab and they had a more than brilliant performance, finishing in ninth place. In fact, they went out with chances of victory to the last round, but a bad final day of foursomes took them away from the title.
Interestingly, that week with Schwab in Louisiana marked a turning point in Norrman’s season. From there, the best results and the victory in the Barbasol came. In this sense, Jorge arrives at this pairs appointment better situated in the FedEx Cup than the Swede was a year ago.
In addition to the Campillo-Norrman duo, the tournament features several very strong pairs. The favourites a priori are Cantlay and Schauffele, McIlroy and Lowry, Matt Fitzpatrick and Alex Fitzpatrick, Morikawa and Kitayama, Hoge and McNealy, the Parker and Pierceson Coody brothers, the Hojgaard brothers, Higgo and Ryan Fox, McIntyre and Detry, Theegala and Zalatoris, Conners and Pendrith and Francesco Molinari and Luke Donald. Well, this last pair, more than favourite is at least curious and endearing for the memories they have of the Rome Ryder Cup.
