AVONDALE, La. – Misery loves company.
It doesn’t get much more frustrating than missing a cut and having to clean out your locker and pack your clubs in your travel bag Friday. But it may hurt a little more when you feel as though you let your partner down.
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans started the week with 80 teams but only 35 will have a chance to wear the champion’s belts and lift the trophy Sunday after the 36-hole cut. After playing four-ball, or best-ball, during the first round and foursomes, or alternate-shot, during the second round, it took an aggregate of 10-under 134 to book a tee time for the weekend.
Here’s a look at some of the big names who were sent packing.
Zurich: Leaderboard | Photos
HomaKawa going home
They had Los Angeles Dodgers jerseys emblazoned with their nickname HomaKawa on the back of it. What the former Cal Bears didn’t have was enough birdies through 36 holes.
Homa, No. 7 in the world, and Morikawa, No. 13, only managed to shoot 8-under 136 and were the biggest duo in the field to get the weekend off.
Morikawa, who is a Zurich ambassador and has played the team event three years in a row with three different partners, has missed the cut twice and finished T-29 last year with Viktor Hovland.
The Pete Dye-designed TPC Louisiana is a ballstriker’s paradise and would seem ideal for their game but they made two bogeys in best-ball Thursday and shot 66 and made par on their final eight holes when they knew birdies were mandatory. A 2-under 70 just didn’t cut it.
“It’s tough. This is a format where you have to make a lot of birdies and we just didn’t make putts,” Morikawa said. “We’re probably half-way through our season and it’s go-time. I want to get back out there and win. It’s just motivation, really, to get ready and play some good golf.”
Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker
The U.S. Ryder Cup captains lost to the European Ryder Cup captains and it wasn’t that close.
While Luke Donald and his assistant Edoardo Molinari are T-12 and on to the weekend after posting 11-under 133, the U.S. side of Zach Johnson and his assistant Steve Stricker were sent packing after shooting 7-under 137.
Johnson had made the cut in seven of his last eight starts. Stricker, who had Joe LaCava on his bag this week, made his first official PGA Tour start since the 2021 3M Open. They started out decently enough with a 6-under 66 in the best-ball format, but could only manage 1-under 71 in alternate shot.
Ryan Palmer and Scott Piercy
Two former Zurich Classic champions – albeit with different partners – teamed up this week and they never found their tune as a duet.
Palmer, who missed his fourth consecutive PGA Tour cut and doesn’t have a top-10 finish in 13 starts, has played in this event with the likes of Jordan Spieth, Jon Rahm, who he won the title with in 2019, and Scottie Scheffler. Piercy’s game isn’t quite of that caliber, and the 2018 Zurich champ (with Billy Horschel) couldn’t produce the goods this week. This was his third missed cut in a row and he hasn’t recorded a top-10 finish this season either.
They teamed to shoot 69-73—142.
John Daly and David Duval
Playing on sponsor exemptions, the former major winners shot 3-over 75 on Thursday, which left them in dead last among the 80 teams. It only got worse Friday as they made four double bogeys in the alternate-shot format and posted an 11-over 83, the highest alternate shot score since the Zurich switched to the team format in 2017. They made just one birdie each round. The par-3s are notoriously tough, with No. 17 considered the signature hole, but they aren’t 8-over tough, which is how Daly and Duval teamed to play them.
Daly, who turns 57 next week, was making his first appearance in this event since 2018. He’s missed the cut in his last 10 Tour starts over the span of four years. Duval, 51, has missed the cut the last three times he’s played the Zurich Classic, most recently with Jim Furyk in 2019, and hasn’t made a Tour cut since 2015.
