If you’ve been hankering for a break from the jamming of kick-ass play events at PGA Tour Schedulethis is your week.
on thursday, Zurich Classic of New Orleans begins at TPC Louisiana, with two-player teams playing four-ball in the first and third rounds, and four-ball in the second and final round. Most team origin stories don’t require much explanation: Matt and Alex Fitzpatrck? Brothers! Jacob Skov Olesen and Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen? Danish friends! Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak? Defending champions! But there’s at least one partnership that might give you pause: Brooks Koepka and . . . Shane Lowry?
Lowry understands.
“From the outside it might not look like it makes sense,” he said from the tour Wednesday, with his quirky partner by his side, “but, you know, to us it does.”
Can appear pointless because we’re more used to seeing Lowry and Koepka lock horns than relying on each other. They have never played head-to-head in a Ryder Cup match, but have played twice in the same Ryder Cup, including in the controversial edition outside Rome in 2023. That was the week when Day 2 of the matches culminated with Lowry and other Europeans Patrick Cantlay’s corpse chirpsJoe LaCava, on the 18th green. That tension spilled over into the parking lot where Lowry had to stop McIlroy from berating Justin Thomas’ caddy, Jim “Bones” Mackay — and even more ugliness in the team hotel where McIlroy allegedly got into it with Koepka’s caddy, Ricky Elliott.
None of this is to say that Lowry ever had any beef with Koepka or vice versa, but given the history between their camps (or at least their continents), it’s still somewhat surprising to see them sync up.
The thing is, though, Ryder Cup rivalries can quickly evaporate under the warm South Florida sun, especially in the Jupiter Island area, where palm trees are outnumbered only by the multimillion-dollar Tour pros. Patrol the Bear Club, Medalist or Old Palm any Tuesday morning during the week and you’re likely to spot a group of brand professionals from both sides of the Atlantic enjoying each other’s company, if not taking each other’s money.
“Everybody plays the same golf courses, so we see each other almost every other day,” Koepka said Wednesday. “I don’t go a day without seeing a guy here, so there’s always conversation. There’s always people talking, having lunch, doing whatever, practicing together. It happens a lot more often than I think people realize.”
Also on the list of popular Tour-pro groups in the neighborhood is Michael Jordan’s swank club, Grove XXIIIwhere Lowry and Koepka played a round together a few months ago — and where Lowry popped the question.
“I told him, ‘I might need a partner for New Orleans,'” Lowry said. He says, ‘Well, I’ll have to play there.’ That was it.”
Lowry played with McIlroy in the previous two Zurichs (they won together in 2024), but when McIlroy bowed out of this year’s edition, Lowry needed a meeting. Koepka, meanwhile, just needed starts. Since returning in January from LIV Golf to the PGA Tour, he has lacked the necessary FedEx points to qualify for Signature Events; he hopes, with Lowry’s help, to improve his status this week.
Lowry and Koepka’s relationship extends beyond the borders of South Florida. They first met in 2012 and ’13 when Koepka was cutting his teeth on the DP World Tour. Lowry has known Elliot, Koepka’s looper, even longer. When Lowry won the Open Championship in 2019, Elliott, who is from Portrush, was among a number of well-wishers waiting to congratulate Lowry on the 18th green.
A few weeks after Lowry and Koepka’s round at the Grove, Lowry sent a follow-up text to Elliott and Koepka to make sure they were still in Zurich. But Lowry said he didn’t get a firm commitment from Koepka until he ran into him a few weeks later.
“I said, ‘Are we going to do it in New Orleans?'” Lowry said. “He said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.'”
Sharp bets like Lowry and Koepka’s chances this week, placing their odds just behind favorites Matt Fitzpatrick, who has won twice in the last month, and his brother Alex, who won the DP World Tour’s Hero Indian Open last month. And on paper Lowry and Koepka seem like a good fit.
Lowry is accurate off the tee and can work the ball both ways. (“My job is to try to hit it in the fairway,” Lowry said.) Koepka’s iron game is nearly unmatched (he’s second in SG: Approaches). And Lowry has played putts (31st in SG: Putting).
The setup suits their eyes too. “I like the way we’re going with him hitting some holes and me hitting other holes,” Koepka said. “Everybody feels comfortable on the holes we’re going to play.” Koepka added, “Then the best part about this whole thing, he’s been playing great, so just let him go do it and stay out of the way.”
Lowry feels pretty good with his partner as well.
“He’s Brooks Koepka,” Lowry said. “He has five majors. You know what I mean?”
;)
