2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans Full Field: Rory McIlroy Returns to PGA Tour Team Event

The Irish duo of Shane Lowry and Masters champion Rory McIlroy headline the week of two-man team play.

Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry were all smiles after winning last year at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

After a twin bill of the Masters and the signature-event RBC Heritage, the PGA Tour enters a quieter couple weeks with a trip to New Orleans and Texas.

But don’t sleep on the Zurich Classic in the Big Easy—it’s a one-of-a-kind week.

The Zurich is the Tour’s two-man team game, a format more representative of weekend matches at your club than the cutthroat stroke play that is the weekly pro staple. Pairs play the first round in a four-ball format (best score of the two balls) and second round at alternate shot, then repeat on the weekend if making the cut.

Do friends make for better teams? Recent history would suggest yes. Irishmen Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy won in a playoff last year; McIlroy of course being a headliner in his first trip to New Orleans. He’ll be even more popular in returning as a newly minted Masters champ.

The year before that, longtime friends Nick Hardy and Davis Riley won (and are in the field again). In 2022, another pair of friends in Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele won, while in 2021 Australian mates (and now LIV golfers) Marc Leishman and Cam Smith won at TPC Louisiana.

Collin Morikawa is the other top-10 player in the field alongside McIlroy, and is playing with Kurt Kitayama. There are also two teams of brothers: Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick and Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard.

The purse is $9.2 million and the winning pair each get $1,329,400 (splitting the first- and second-place money from a regular Tour pay table). No world ranking points are available but the standard two-year exemption similar to regular Tour events is awarded, along with 400 FedExCup points. 

Here are the teams:

2025 Zurich Classic full field

80 teams

Clark, Wyndham -- Moore, Taylor

Fitzpatrick, Matt -- Fitzpatrick, Alex *

Morikawa, Collin -- Kitayama, Kurt

Woodland, Gary -- Hodges, Lee

McIlroy, Rory -- Lowry, Shane

Horschel, Billy -- Hoge, Tom

Bhatia, Akshay -- Young, Carson

Davis, Cam -- Svensson, Adam

Detry, Thomas -- MacIntyre, Robert

Echavarria, Nico -- Greyserman, Max

Garnett, Brice -- Straka, Sepp

Gotterup, Chris -- Cummins, Quade

Hardy, Nick -- Riley, Davis

Highsmith, Joe -- Tosti, Alejandro

Kim, Si Woo -- Bae, Sangmoon

Kizzire, Patton -- Kohles, Ben

Knapp, Jake -- Capan III, Frankie

List, Luke -- Norlander, Henrik

Malnati, Peter -- Knox, Russell

McCarty, Matt -- Andersen, Mason

Pavon, Matthieu -- Perez, Victor

Poston, J.T. -- Mitchell, Keith

Rai, Aaron -- Theegala, Sahith

Taylor, Nick -- Hadwin, Adam

van Rooyen, Erik -- Bezuidenhout, Christiaan

Vegas, Jhonattan -- Yu, Kevin

Vilips, Karl -- Thorbjornsen, Michael

Villegas, Camilo -- Donald, Luke

Wallace, Matt -- Olesen, Thorbjørn

Kisner, Kevin -- Sigg, Greyson

Palmer, Ryan -- Johnson, Zach

Snedeker, Brandt -- Reavie, Chez

Merritt, Troy * -- Streb, Robert *

Byrd, Jonathan * -- Hadley, Chesson *

Paul, Yannik * -- Paul, Jeremy

Saunders, Sam * -- Cole, Eric

Taylor, Ben * -- Skinns, David

Canter, Laurie * -- Smith, Jordan *

Schenk, Adam -- Duncan, Tyler

Griffin, Ben -- Novak, Andrew

Hubbard, Mark -- Brehm, Ryan

Hossler, Beau -- Putnam, Andrew

Lower, Justin -- Ramey, Chad

Ghim, Doug -- Kim, Chan

Fishburn, Patrick -- Blair, Zac

Hoey, Rico -- Ryder, Sam

Stevens, Sam -- McGreevy, Max

Hoffman, Charley -- Watney, Nick

Hisatsune, Ryo -- Kanaya, Takumi

Phillips, Chandler -- Bridgeman, Jacob

Lipsky, David -- Wu, Dylan

Whaley, Vince -- Albertson, Anders

Meissner, Mac -- Goodwin, Noah

Højgaard, Nicolai -- Højgaard, Rasmus

Silverman, Ben -- Valimaki, Sami

Lashley, Nate -- Springer, Hayden

Fox, Ryan -- Higgo, Garrick

Smalley, Alex -- Bramlett, Joseph

Dahmen, Joel -- Higgs, Harry

Cauley, Bud -- Tway, Kevin

Mullinax, Trey -- Shelton, Robby

Gordon, Will -- Riedel, Matthew

Gerard, Ryan -- Walker, Danny

Salinda, Isaiah -- Velo, Kevin

Ventura, Kris -- Rozner, Antoine

Svensson, Jesper -- Norgaard, Niklas

Fisk, Steven -- Widing, Tim

Roy, Kevin -- Cone, Trevor

Griffin, Lanto -- Champ, Cameron

Castillo, Ricky -- Mouw, William

Suber, Jackson -- Coody, Pierceson

Chandler, Will -- NeSmith, Matt

Peterson, Paul -- Rosenmueller, Thomas

Manassero, Matteo -- Del Solar, Cristobal

Pak, John -- Montgomery, Taylor

Hoshino, Rikuya -- Onishi, Kaito

Dickson, Taylor -- Crowe, Trace

Buckley, Hayden -- Thornberry, Braden

Laird, Martin -- Haas, Bill


*sponsor exemptions