Despite a bogey on the 12th on Saturday, Branden Grace and Garrick Higgo kept themselves right in the hunt for the title in the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a third-round score of nine-under-par 63.
The tournament is played by teams of two, with rounds one and three being in betterball format, and the second and final rounds being fourball, or alternate shot. In betterball, a dropped shot can feel almost like a double-bogey, especially when chasing a team like Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who carded a 12-under 60 to move to 29-under for the tournament.
Grace and Higgo were in second on 24-under, and they will take heart from the fact that they had the joint low round of the day in the foursomes play of the second round with a 65. Cantlay and Schauffele had a 68.
They were propelled by a chip-in eagle on the seventh from 39 yards out by Higgo, but there were contributions by both players as they kept themselves in contention going into the final round.
“We know each other well,” said Grace. “I thought with him being a lefty, some of these holes would suit him really well and some of the other holes would suit me really well, the opposites, and it’s been good. We’ve played well so far and we’ve had a really good time out there.”
Higgo agreed. “I think our games fit each other,” he said. “We played foursomes quite a bit as juniors and amateurs, like interprovincial stuff where you’d play five days of 36 holes and one of them is foursomes. We played it quite a lot growing up, but it’s been – I think the last time I played it would be 2017. So it’s not that long ago, but it’s a while. But I’ve always enjoyed it.”
Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Charl Schwartzel had a third-round seven-under-par 65 to move to 16-under for the tournament in a share of 28th.
