![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ZMWFYFNXS5FLJKAT3L75KSX3CI.jpg\")
Matt Fitzpatrick, of England, celebrates after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Hilton Head, S.C. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart)(Mike Stewart | AP)<\/p>\nAVONDALE, La. (AP) \u2014 Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick are hoping to take advantage of a rare opportunity to win a PGA Tour event together.<\/p>\n
The English brothers have played some of their best golf lately, and the field at this week\u2019s Zurich Classic of New Orleans is down on star power because of the tour\u2019s jam-packed schedule.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a nice start to the year for both of us,\u201d said Matt Fitzpatrick, now ranked third in the world after a victory last weekend in the RBC Heritage. \u201cI feel like this year, our expectations are higher given the form that we had shown. … We feel like we have as good a chance as anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PGA Tour\u2019s only team event falls this season in the midst of a six-week span that includes two major championships (the Masters and the PGA Championship) and three signature events at Harbour Town, Doral and Quail Hollow.<\/p>\n
That meant if top players elected to come to the Big Easy, they\u2019d either have to play six straight weeks or skip one of the big-money, limited-field events.<\/p>\n
Still, there are some high-profile names among the 74 two-man teams on the tee sheet for Thursday\u2019s opening round.<\/p>\n
Those include Shane Lowry, who won the Zurich two years ago with Rory McIlroy and is now teaming up with five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, who is in his first season back on the PGA Tour after playing on the LIV Golf circuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have a good bit of fun out there,\u201d Lowry said, praising Koepka\u2019s iron play. \u201cMy job is to try and hit it in the fairway and let him do his thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each player will play his own ball during the first and third rounds, with the team recording the better score on each hole. The second and final rounds use the more difficult alternate-shot format.<\/p>\n
Last year\u2019s champions \u2014 Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak \u2014 are back to defend; former U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark is paired with Taylor Moore; Billy Horschel, the only player to win the Zurich in both a single-player and team format, has joined forces with Tom Hoge; Sahith Theegala and Aaron Rai comprise a team of PGA Tour winners; and six-time tour winner Tony Finau joins Max Greyserman.<\/p>\n
Matt Fitzpatrick, of England, celebrates after winning the RBC Heritage golf tournament Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Hilton Head, S.C. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart)(Mike Stewart | AP)<\/p>\n
The field also includes some players who don\u2019t have the status to get regular starts on tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone that\u2019s on the PGA Tour or has a conditional PGA Tour card, they\u2019re still incredibly talented golfers,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cMaybe they just haven\u2019t broken through yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Griffin\u2019s first victory came at the Zurich \u2014 a breakthrough that preceded two more titles and a spot on last year\u2019s U.S. Ryder Cup team.<\/p>\n
Matt Fitzpatrick arrived in New Orleans after edging world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler in a playoff at Hilton Head on Sunday, giving the 2022 U.S. Open champion his second victory this season. The 31-year-old won the Valspar Championship in March.<\/p>\n
![\"Matt](\"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Y752Y3R525H4NISIYX6OQRYRGM.jpg\")
Matt Fitzpatrick, of England, reads the green on the 17th hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage golf tournament Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Hilton Head, S.C. (AP Photo\/Mike Stewart)(Mike Stewart | AP)<\/p>\n
In between those Fitzpatrick family triumphs came 27-year-old Alex\u2019s first European tour title at the Indian Open in March.<\/p>\n
The Zurich offers the brothers their one chance to play together, as they\u2019ve done the previous three years. Their best finish was 11th in 2024. A year ago, they missed the cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, I felt like both of us weren\u2019t kind of playing the best of our ability,\u201d Alex Fitzpatrick said. \u201cComing into the event was a little stressful.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, this year with the form we\u2019ve both been in, the expectations are high,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut at the same time, it takes the pressure a little off because it feels more like we can enjoy this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only downer during Wednesday\u2019s pro-am came when Matt Fitzpatrick looked at his phone to see how the brothers\u2019 favorite soccer team, Sheffield United, was doing (Sheffield lost 3-1 to Blackburn).<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, we don\u2019t play like them,\u201d Alex said.<\/p>\n
While players on the winning team do not get a spot in the Masters, each gets credit for a PGA Tour victory and a two-year exemption. Alex is not a full-time PGA Tour player.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be something I might be thinking about if we\u2019re coming down the stretch on Sunday and we\u2019re in contention,\u201d Alex said.<\/p>\n
A good week for Koepka could move him high enough to earn a spot in the upcoming signature events. He was an alternate at Harbour Town.<\/p>\n
Griffin and Novak enjoyed the novelty of seeing images of themselves as the defending champions on signs at the par-72 TPC Louisiana.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re familiar with the golf course. We like the vibe. We play well in partner golf together,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cIt will be fun to defend for the first time for both of us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Novak: \u201cI don\u2019t show up to many tournaments usually where I\u2019m kind of the betting favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AVONDALE, La. (AP) \u2014 Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick are hoping to take advantage of a rare opportunity to…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[511,3598,58,3599,3583,3600,3597],"class_list":["post-10025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-alex-fitzpatrick","tag-fitzpatrick-brothers","tag-matt-fitzpatrick","tag-pga-tour-team-event","tag-tpc-louisiana","tag-zurich-classic-2026","tag-zurich-classic-of-new-orleans","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117202578560787186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}