Branden Grace and Garrick Higgo were unable to repeat their fine foursomes round from the second round as they carded a one-over-par 73 in the final round of the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans on Sunday to finish in a share of fourth.
They struggled to put each other in good positions throughout the round, and ended up with four birdies and five bogeys to finish the week, which alternated betterball and foursomes play, on 23-under-par. That was six shots back from winners Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, who also battled on their way to a level-par 72 and 29-under. That gave them a two-stroke win over Sam Burns and Billy Horschel.
Grace and Higgo had carded a brilliant 65 in the second-round foursomes to put themselves firmly in the frame. They looked as if they would get things going early on when they birdied the par-five second, but bogeys on six and seven slowed things down. They pulled things together nicely with three birdies in a row from the 10th, but bogeys on 14, 15 and 18 deflated their charge.
The showing did both their chances on the FedEx Cup ranking some good, however: Higgo, who has been having a poor season, climbed 25 places to 145th, and Grace rose 19 spots to 133rd.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Charl Schwartzel also closed with a one-over 73 to finish on 15-under in a share of 32nd.
