Tour Life
PGA Tour pro explains how Zurich Classic teams happen: 'It's kinda like asking someone out on a date'
Nick Hardy and Davis Riley after winning the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Jason Allen/ISI Photos
Three sets of brothers—the Fitzpatricks, the Hojgaards and the Coodys—will tee it up at this week's Zurich Classic, making for the three most obvious teams in the PGA Tour's annual team event. But how do the rest of these partnerships come about? As Michael Kim explains, "It's kinda like asking someone out on a date."
The PGA Tour winner and Golf Twitter Prince to King Max Homa provided his latest great insight to life on tour on the eve of one of the most unique events of the year. Kim, who will play with K.H. Lee, described the process of tour pros linking up since the annual tour stop in New Orleans switched to the team format in 2017.
Well, for tour pros who don't have brothers who are also tour pros, that is. Have a look:
Interesting stuff, and, obviously, a great dating analogy. "Most players don’t ask someone who’s totally out of their league, unless they’re very good friends," Kim says. He also mentions these pairings are a lot more about comfort than strategy.
"It’s a fun event so most partner up with players that they’re friendly with and want to team up with," Kim continues. "Then we handle who tees off on what holes and such."
It seems Kim gets as much of a kick out of seeing some of the teams as golf fans do.
"It’s always interesting looking at the pairings sheet to see who is paired up with who. (Usually a couple players out kick their coverage lol)"
To that last point, we'd be remiss if we didn't mention Ryan Palmer. A great player in his own right with four PGA Tour titles, Palmer has managed to play this event with four guys who have won a combined five green jackets in Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth, and, this year, Zach Johnson. Palmer and Rahm won the title in 2019.
Now Palmer is obviously a tremendous guy—he's a Golf Digest Arnie Award winner after all!—but those are some amazing pulls. Good for Ryan. Hey, like with dating, if you never ask, you'll never know.