Foursomes is always one of the tougher forms of team golf but it undoubtedly becomes easier when one player in the partnership doesn’t have to hit a single shot. At the Zurich Classic of New Orelans on the PGA Tour that’s exactly what happened for Graeme McDowell and Matt Wallace as the Northern Irishman made a hole-in-one on the Par 3 17th – their eighth hole of the day – on the way to a round of 70 and a tie for ninth place at eight under par.
At the tough 216-yard Par 3, McDowell worked a low draw back into the left-to-right breeze, allowing the ball to land at the front of the green and make its way up to the hole and into the bottom of the cup for his first ever hole-in-one on the PGA Tour.
The 2010 US Open champion hadn’t even seen the ball go in as he was getting his tee out of the ground and was taken by surprise as Wallace grabbed him.
Genuinely, one of the happiest moments I’ve ever had on a golf course.
— Matt Wallace (@mattsjwallace) April 24, 2021
Was such a good shot. @Graeme_McDowell you’re awesome pardz. @Zurich_Classic pic.twitter.com/uota1uz59W
“I’d have been very happy with anything dry there, but I’ll take a one!” said McDowell after collecting his ball from the hole.
With four birdies and four bogeys on their card, McDowell’s ace helped to keep the pair in contention heading into the weekend at eight under, five shots off the lead shared by the pairs of Cameron Champ and Tony Finau and Norweigans Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura.
Champ and Finau picked up two shots on the front nine and three coming home, while a bogey on the par-four 12th was the only blot on their book.
Norwegians Hovland and Ventura followed their 62 with a 69 in the foursomes, a double bogey on the 16th more than countered by four birdies on their last nine holes of the day to sit on 13 under.
Englishman Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson of Sweden carded a 68 to move up 13 places for joint third place, two shots off the pace, alongside Bubba Watson and Scottie Scheffler.
Second round scores from the Zurich Classic of New Orleans (USA unless stated, Par 72):
131 Cameron Champ & Tony Finau 63 68, Viktor Hovland (Nor) & Kristoffer Ventura (Nor) 62 69
133 Henrik Stenson (Swe) & Justin Rose (Eng) 65 68, Bubba Watson & Scottie Scheffler 64 69
134 Richy Werenski & Peter Uihlein 65 69, Louis Oosthuizen (Rsa) & Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 63 71
135 Marc Leishman (Aus) & Cameron Smith (Aus) 63 72, Jason Kokrak & Pat Perez 65 70
136 Rob Oppenheim & Grayson Murray 66 70, Cameron Percy (Aus) & Greg Chalmers (Aus) 66 70, Jon Rahm (Spa) & Ryan Palmer 65 71, Billy Horschel & Sam Burns 63 73, Brendon Todd & Chris Kirk 66 70, Keegan Bradley & Brendan Steele 63 73, Graeme McDowell (NIrl) & Matt Wallace (Eng) 66 70
137 Tyler Duncan & Adam Schenk 64 73, Brice Garnett & Scott Stallings 62 75, Max Homa & Talor Gooch 66 71, Alex Noren (Swe) & Henrik Norlander (Swe) 67 70, Thomas Pieters (Bel) & Tom Lewis (Eng) 67 70, Keith Mitchell & Brandt Snedeker 66 71, Doc Redman & Sam Ryder 66 71, Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor) & Kyle Stanley 63 74
138 Charley Hoffman & Nick Watney 64 74, Peter Malnati & Chris Baker 65 73, Justin Suh & Doug Ghim 65 73, Michael Gligic (Can) & Vincent Whaley 67 71, Wyndham Clark & Erik van Rooyen (Rsa) 64 74, Michael Kim & Brandon Hagy 67 71, Xander Schauffele & Patrick Cantlay 64 74, Danny Willett (Eng) & Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 65 73, David Hearn (Can) & Zack Sucher 67 71, Sepp Straka (Aut) & Josh Teater 68 70
The following players missed the cut:
139 Dylan Frittelli (Rsa) & Kevin Streelman 65 74, Matt Jones (Aus) & J.J. Spaun 65 74, Rasmus Hojgaard (Den) & Vaughn Taylor 67 72, Cameron Tringale & Roberto Castro 65 74, Harry Higgs & Michael Gellerman 67 72, Martin Laird (Sco) & Nick Taylor (Can) 67 72, Troy Merritt & Robert Streb 69 70, Mark Hubbard & Sebastian Cappelen (Den) 63 76, Maverick McNealy & Joseph Bramlett 69 70
140 Scott Piercy & Akshay Bhatia 65 75, Branden Grace (Rsa) & Harold Varner III 67 73, Roger Sloan & Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 64 76, Kevin Tway & Kelly Kraft 70 70, Chez Reavie & Lucas Glover 70 70, Matthew NeSmith & Chase Seiffert 68 72
141 Hank Lebioda & Bronson Burgoon 67 74, Michael Thompson & Will Gordon 65 76, Sung-Hoon Kang (Kor) & K. J. Choi (Kor) 68 73, Sung Jae Im (Kor) & Byeong-Hun An (Kor) 68 73, Robby Shelton & Kramer Hickok 67 74
142 Nelson Ledesma (Arg) & Fabian Gomez (Arg) 66 76, Bo Van Pelt & Luke List 70 72, Russell Knox (Sco) & Brian Stuard 65 77, Austin Cook & Andrew Landry 66 76, Rafael Campos (Pur) & Mark Anderson 68 74, Jason Dufner & Dominic Bozzelli 68 74, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) & Andres Romero (Arg) 68 74, Chengtsung Pan (Tai) & Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 71 71
143 Kevin Kisner & Scott Brown 70 73, Tom Hoge & Beau Hossler 69 74, Tim Wilkinson (Nzl) & George McNeill 68 75
144 Chesson Hadley & Ben Martin 67 77, J.B. Holmes & Robert Garrigus 68 76, Joel Dahmen & Lanto Griffin 69 75, Ryan Blaum & Jonathan Byrd 71 73, Andrew Putnam & Scott Harrington 67 77, Danny Lee (Nzl) & Sang-Moon Bae (Kor) 69 75, Woody Austin & Rocco Mediate 68 76
145 Rhein Gibson (Aus) & Ben Taylor (Eng) 69 76
146 D. J. Trahan & Ricky Barnes 70 76, Matthew Every & Charlie Beljan 68 78
147 Collin Morikawa & Matthew Wolff 70 77, Hunter Mahan & Bill Haas 70 77
148 Kevin Stadler & Johnson Wagner 69 79
149 Martin Trainer & James Hahn 69 80
150 Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) & Arjun Atwal (Ind) 71 79, Bo Hoag & Wes Roach 71 79
