Zurich Classic of New Orleans: Ryan Fox, Garrick Higgo make cut after scrapping to even-par second round

Ryan Fox and playing partner Garrick Higgo have made the cut at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Photo / AP

Heading into the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this weekend, Ryan Fox noted that of the two formats featured in the tournament, one was much more friendly than the other.

In odd rounds, the teams of two play four-ball – where both players on a team play their own ball and just take the better of the two scores. In even rounds, they play foursomes, where the pair take turns playing the same ball.

“Foursomes is always the interesting one. The scores tend to vary a lot in that and it can be a really hard format to play,” he told the Herald before the tournament.

“Four-ball’s really fun to play; you just kind of go at everything for the most part and hope one of you is going to make par and the other is going to have a chance to birdie or you both get a really good chance to birdie and there can be some really low score shots, and then it’s kind of hold on for dear life in foursomes.”

After carding an opening-round nine-under-par 63 playing four-ball, Fox and teammate Garrick Higgo scrapped through to an even-par 72 in their first foray into foursomes for the week. It saw them sitting at nine-under for the tournament halfway through, which was good enough to be in a tie for 26th and two shots above the cut line.

The round didn’t get off to a good start for the Fox and Higgo pairing as they carded bogeys in two of their first three holes. They were able to recover the lost shots with birdies on seven and eight before another dropped shot saw them one-over at the turn.

They did, however, immediately get the shot back on the 10th. Another birdie on the 15th had them under-par for the first time in the round before a bogey on the 17th brought them back to even which was how they finished.

The pair go into the weekend – back to four-ball on Sunday – four shots back from four leading teams Mark Hubbard and Ryan Brehm, Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry, Aaron Rai and David Lipsky, and Andrew Novak and Davis Thompson who sit at 13-under through two rounds.

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.