Teams of Reavie-Glover, Zhang-Dou lead Zurich Classic

The American pairing of Chez Reavie and Lucas Glover and the Chinese duo of Xinjun Zhang and Zecheng Dou finished Thursday’s four-ball (best-ball) round atop the leaderboard at 12-under-par 60 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

The format for this tournament is a little different. Rounds one and three in the two-player team event feature the four-ball (best ball) format, while the second and fourth rounds use the foursomes (alternate shot) format.

Zhang and Dou, who started on the back nine, finished strong and were among the last groups on the course at TPC Louisiana in Avondale, La., birdieing Nos. 16, 17 and 18. They finished their round with six birdies on the front side over their final nine holes after having six on the back nine.

Reavie and Glover matched the feat over the final three holes of their first nine after also starting the day on No. 10. They played the back nine at 7 under, including birdies on both par 3s and par 5s. They closed their final nine holes with five birdies, including on Nos. 6, 7 and 8.

With off and on light rain in the morning, scoring conditions were pretty good by the time the final groups teed off but were more challenging earlier.

“Yeah, wasn’t near as breezy as we thought, Glover said. “The rain laid down right as we were teeing off on 10, so we got a little fortunate with that, but we played well.

“Chez got off to a great start, I kind of started coming on, and then we both — it was almost like every other hole there for a while, so we did our job today.”

Reavie actually picked up his ball on seven of the final nine holes as Glover got hot.

“You know, we both played really well,” Reavie said. “We both had a lot of good looks all day, and I had some good looks and then he made some good putts and I didn’t have to putt it. It was a lot of fun.”

Reigning Open Championship winner Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer were among the earlier groups and are at 6 under, tied for 32nd.

“Yeah, I think the first groups off had it the worst,” Spieth said. “We had two holes, two of the easier holes. You know, we were obviously in some pretty nasty weather in the warmup, but it is what it is. Sometimes it happens.

Six pairings are tied for third at 10 under, two shots back of the leaders, including Americans Tony Finau and Daniel Summerhays, J.J. Henry and Tom Hoge, Michael Kim and Andrew Putnam, Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown, American Troy Merritt and Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge and England’s Chris Paisley and Tommy Fleetwood.

Masters champion Patrick Reed and teammate Patrick Cantley finished 7 under and tied for 21st with a bogey on the par-3 third hole the only blemish. They are joined at 7 under by defending champions Cameron Smith of Australia and Jonas Blixt of Sweden.

Among other notables, defending U.S. Open champion Brooks Koepka and partner Marc Turnesa are 5 under and tied for 52nd. World No. 2 and 2017 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas and Bud Cauley combined to shoot 2-under 70 and are tied for 77th.

Bogey-free rounds were fired by 49 of the 80 teams entered.

The Zurich Classic awards FedExCup points and official money, and it counts as an official victory for the members of the winning team.

–Field Level Media