Weekly PGA Recap: Two for the Show

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

Ben Griffin was runner-up twice in the past 18 months, had a pair of top-5s this season and missed out on qualifying for last month's Masters by just a fraction of an OWGR point. He sure looked like he was close to winning for the first time on the PGA Tour.

Andrew Novak was runner-up two weeks ago at the RBC Heritage, had also finished third twice this season and was runner-up in a tournament last season. He sure looked like he was close to winning for the first time on the PGA Tour.

At the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Griffin and Novak put their heads together to try to solve that pesky little problem of winning a PGA Tour event. They also put their golf games together, and that was the final step to victory, capturing the two-man team event at TPC Louisiana by one stroke over the twin-brother tandem of Nicolai Hojgaard and Rasmus Hojgaard.

Griffin and Novak clearly were among the top non-winners on Tour, both top-50 in the OWGR at some point. Novak is still there at No. 34. But being close in sports guarantees nothing, as the Buffalo Bills can attest.

Griffin, 28, and Novak, 30, had played the Zurich multiple times before, though not with each other. It's almost odd that they hadn't connected till now.

"Me and Andrew have known each other since junior golf, since probably we were 14 or 15," Griffin said. "He's from the Triangle, Cary, Raleigh area in North Carolina, I'm from Chapel Hill. He ended up growing up in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, I was in North Carolina, but we still played a lot of Carolinas Golf Association events together, different opens. …"

"But yeah, the partnership kind of was easy. We've talked about partnering up the last couple years, and obviously looking now, we should have just started from the get-go two years ago but that was probably my fault when one of my college teammates Ryan Gerard needed a spot a couple years ago and we paired together. …

"We both lived in Sea Island [Georgia], more or less for me the last five years. I just made the move down to Florida further south, but we've played in a ton of money games together in Sea Island. We've trained with the same strength coach, Randy Myers there, for four or five years. We've done just about everything in our career together."

And now they have their wins together.

They both now have two-year exemptions on Tour and get into the remaining Signature Events, plus the upcoming PGA Championship, which they would've gotten into regardless. They each got 400 FedExCup points -- it's normally 500 for first, 300 for second -- which moved Novak to sixth in the standings and Griffin to 21st. That would get each of them into the TOUR Championship if it started today.

There were no OWGR points distributed for the Zurich. But since Novak is entrenched in the top 50, he'll surely get into the U.S. Open in June. Griffin, currently at No. 56, must stay inside the top 60 to qualify. They will both be at the limited-field, no-cut Trusit in two weeks, meaning Griffin could pad his world ranking.

As you can see, even though it's a team victory, the rewards are substantial for Novak and Griffin individually.

They didn't talk afterward about the obvious next step -- winning a tournament by themselves. Griffin can do that this week, if he stays in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, which Novak didn't enter. 

A big question they'll have to answer for themselves is, do we continue to play in smaller events for a better chance to get a win, or just play the bigger events, for which we now qualify?

Griffin and Novak will have to make that decision individually.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Nicolai Hojgaard - Rasmus Hojgaard
Being brothers, especially twins, might seem like a big advantage in this format. But the pressure can be greater, not wanting to screw up for perhaps the closest person to you in the world. Last year, the Hojgaards missed the cut. But this year they opened with a 59 in foursomes and never looked back. They both are in the Aon Swing 5 – Nicolai in third and Rasmus in fourth – and if they are still there after the Byron Nelson, they'll get into the Truist signature event. They both are playing this week.

Frankie Capan III - Jake Knapp
Knapp is already a winner on Tour; Capan has only 16 career starts. But they came together and finished third. The experience of contending should be invaluable for Capan, who had struggled with six straight missed cuts coming in. Both will be at the Nelson.

David Lipsky - Dylan Wu
There was a four-way share of fourth place. It's been a very hard season for both these guys, especially for Wu, who is playing out of the 126-150 category. Both guys are from the top-100 in the point standings, which is the playoff cutoff spot starting this year.

Trace Crowe - Taylor Dickson
Crowe is another 126-150 guy and Dickson is a Korn Ferry grad, both struggling this season. This tie for fourth could be their season highlight.

Michael Thorbjornsen - Karl Vilips
Thorbjornsen is the bigger name, but it's the Australian Vilips who has won a title – the Puerto Rico Open earlier this year. With their share of fourth place, Thorbjornsen is now second in the Aon Swing 5, with a very good chance to get into the Truist in two weeks.

Luke List - Henrik Norlander
Rounding out the logjam in fourth place are two older guys not having good seasons. List, of course, is more accomplished than Norlander. But his two-year exemption for winning the 2023 Sanderson Farms expires at season's end and, at age 40, he could have a decade of uncertainty ahead.

Shane Lowry - Rory McIlroy
After shooting a 61 on Saturday, the defending champions couldn't get much going on Sunday and tied for 12th.  Lowry didn't even know whether McIlroy would show up in the aftermath of his Masters win. But McIlroy wasn't going to miss playing with a good buddy. As for what's next, McIlroy said: "Yeah, I've got to just take a little bit of time here. It's nice to have a week off, and yeah, reset and try to get some practice in. I feel like it's like two practice weeks coming up in a way with next week at home and then Truist, as well, in some ways."

MISSED CUTS

Alex Fitzpatrick-Matt Fitzpatrick, Wyndham Clark-Taylor Moore, Kurt Kitayama-Collin Morikawa, Charley Hoffman-Nick Watney, Zach Johnson-Ryan Palmer. It's hard to read much of anything into missed cuts this week. The Fitzpatricks had done well here twice before but Matt is amid a down season. … Same for Clark, who had played well here before though not with Moore, who also has had success at the Zurich. … Morikawa will be fine going forward. .. Hoffman and Watney are the only tandem to have played in every Zurich and, despite being in their 40s, they were coming off consecutive top-20s here. … Palmer is a former champion here with Jon Rahm, and he had also played one year with Jordan Spieth.

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