Ham and egg, ham and egg, ham and egg. You’re going to hear that cliché a lot this week at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the only PGA Tour event that employs a team format.
However, that is not the phrase we’d use to describe what happened to C.T. Pan and Xinjun Zhang at TPC Louisiana’s 15th hole in the opening round. No, what they did was more like milk and pizza, or lamb and tuna, or peanut butter and sand, or… you get the picture.
Sitting at one-under for their round, Pan and Zhang committed the cardinal sin of the best-ball format. They both suffered their worst hole of the day on the same hole. No ham, no egg here:
couple of doublés in BEST ball from team pan.
cool. absolutely cool. pic.twitter.com/QuEgVaJuCX
— Matthew Wiley (@wiley77) April 22, 2021
Oh dear. Disaster, disaster of epic proportions. This is something you only see in your hacker money games on the weekend, which are often matchplay, so you and your partner can put your golf balls in your pockets and move to the next hole. As for Pan and Zhang, this one counts, and in a best-ball format against other PGA Tour pros, it may be enough to shoot themselves out of the tournament. You simply cannot throw up a double-bogey and expect to contend.
That said, the Pan and Zhang duo did get both shots back with birdies on 16 and 18 to post a one-under 71. With tomorrow being foursomes, they could potentially make up some ground, as long as they don’t do and more milk and pizza-ing.
