Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer lead the all-American top-5 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans having fired a bogey-free, 14-under 58 on Thursday. Their round was highlighted by a birdie-eagle-birdie start for Smalley and four consecutive birdies to close the round for Springer.
58 equals the 18-hole Zurich Classic of New Orleans record in Four-ball (other: Isaiah Salinda and Kevin Velo/2025/R1).
This is a first-time pairing for Smalley and Springer at the Zurich Classic. Smalley is making his fourth tournament appearance (MC/2022, MC/2024, MC/2025), while Springer is making his third (MC/2024, T18/2025).
Smalley is making his 11th start on the PGA Tour this season, highlighted by four top-25 finishes (best: T14/Valero Texas Open). He earned exempt status through 2026 by finishing in the top 100 in the 2025 FedExCup standings (No. 74). Springer is making his second start of the season (T26/Puerto Rico Open).
Davis Thompson and Austin Eckroat, partnering for the first time, carded a first-round 13-under 59, highlighted by a nine-hole stretch on Nos. 7-15 with an eagle (No. 7) and eight straight birdies. They are both making their third tournament appearance with their best finishes coming in their last start (Thompson: T23/2024; Eckroat: T11/2024).
Thompson and Eckroat are both making their 10th start on Tour this season, with Thompson’s best finish coming at the Puerto Rico Open (4th) and Eckroat’s at the Valero Texas Open (T10).
Thompson seeks a second PGA Tour title (2024 John Deere Classic) and Eckroat is in search of his third victory (2024 Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, 2024 World Wide Technology Championship).
Coming off his victory last week at the RBC Heritage, English World No. 3 Matt Fitzpatrick and brother Alex Fitzpatrick carded an opening-round 8-under 64 and lie in T30 at 8-under. They are aiming to become the first set of brothers to win the Zurich Classic.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans format
This is the ninth year the Zurich Classic will be played in a two-man team format, which was introduced in 2017 (canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19). Teams play Four-Ball in the first and third rounds, and Foursomes (alternate shot) in the second and final rounds. Each player on the winning team will receive 400 FedExCup points, $1,372,750 and a two-year exemption on the PGA Tour (through 2028).
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| Pos. | Team | To Par | R1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Smalley / Hayden Springer | -14 | 58 |
| 2 | Davis Thompson / Austin Eckroat | -13 | 59 |
| T3 | Sam Stevens / Zach Bauchou | -12 | 60 |
| T3 | Eric Cole / Hank Lebioda | -12 | 60 |
| T3 | Nick Dunlap / Gordon Sargent | -12 | 60 |
| T6 | Ben Martin / Trace Crowe | -11 | 61 |
| T6 | Michael Brennan / Johnny Keefer | -11 | 61 |
| T6 | Billy Horschel / Tom Hoge | -11 | 61 |
| T6 | Pontus Nyholm / Jesper Svensson | -11 | 61 |
| T6 | Matt McCarty / Mac Meissner | -11 | 61 |
| T6 | Stephan Jaeger / Jackson Suber | -11 | 61 |
| T6 | Doug Ghim / Jeffrey Kang | -11 | 61 |
| T13 | Taylor Pendrith / Mackenzie Hughes | -10 | 62 |
| T13 | Aaron Rai / Sahith Theegala | -10 | 62 |
| T13 | William Mouw / Takumi Kanaya | -10 | 62 |
| T16 | Beau Hossler / Sam Ryder | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Lanto GriffinBen / Kohles | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | David Lipsky / Rico Hoey | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Jonathan ByrdChez / Reavie | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Davis Riley / Nick Hardy | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Matti Schmid / Seamus Power | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Zac Blair / Patrick Fishburn | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen / Jacob Skov Olesen | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Brice Garnett / Lee Hodges | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Adam Svensson / Adam Hadwin | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Vince Whaley / Greyson Sigg | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Keith Mitchell / Brandt Snedeker | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Trey Mullinax / David Skinns | -9 | 63 |
| T16 | Kristoffer Reitan / Kris Ventura | -9 | 63 |
| T30 | Ben Silverman / Cameron Champ | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Max McGreevy / Kevin Roy | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | James Hahn / Kyle Stanley | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Luke List / Henrik Norlander | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Chandler Phillips / Carson Young | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Joel Dahmen / Kevin Streelman | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Matt Wallace / Marco Penge | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Matt Fitzpatrick / Alex Fitzpatrick | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Matthieu Pavon / Martin Couvra | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Dylan Wu / Zecheng Dou | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | Adrien Dumont de Chassart / Davis Chatfield | -8 | 64 |
| T30 | A.J. Ewart / Casey Jarvis | -8 | 64 |
| T42 | Peter Malnati / Russell Knox | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Mark Hubbard / Ryan Brehm | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Ben Griffin / Andrew Novak | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Wyndham Clark / Taylor Moore | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Will Gordon / Paul Peterson | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Ryan Gerard / Sudarshan Yellamaraju | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Garrick Higgo / Matt Kuchar | -7 | 65 |
| T42 | Erik van Rooyen / Christiaan Bezuidenhout | -7 | 65 |
| T50 | Chad Ramey / Justin Lower | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Danny Walker / Jimmy Stanger | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Kevin Yu / Tom Kim | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Camilo Villegas / Marcelo Rozo | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Troy Merritt / Robert Streb | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Harry Higgs / Jeremy Paul | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Andrew Putnam / Austin Smotherman | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Brooks Koepka / Shane Lowry | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Luke Clanton / Blades Brown | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Cam Davis / Geoff Ogilvy | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | Scott Piercy / Taylor Montgomery | -6 | 66 |
| T50 | John Parry / Dan Brown | -6 | 66 |
| T62 | Austin Cook / Jason Dufner | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Charley Hoffman / Nick Watney | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Karl Vilips / Michael Thorbjornsen | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Rafael Campos / Alejandro Tosti | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Tony Finau / Max Greyserman | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Frankie Capan III / Noah Goodwin | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Christo Lamprecht / Neal Shipley | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Adam Schenk / Tyler Duncan | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Ryan Palmer / Chan Kim | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Haotong Li / Jordan Smith | -5 | 67 |
| T62 | Chandler Blanchet / John VanDerLaan | -5 | 67 |
| 73 | Keita Nakajima / Kensei Hirata | -4 | 68 |
| 74 | Chris Kirk / Patton Kizzire | Par | 72 |
