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Max Homa and Collin Morikawa will team up for the first time to play the 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
They are among the top five teams to watch this week play in the tournament, considering their performances in the last few months and of course their OWGR.
Max Homa lauded his teammate for the week ahead of the tournament in a press conference. He praised Morikawa's shot and said:
"He's basically a Robot. I'm not sure I've ever seen him hit a bad shot."
Homa went on to talk about their practice round:
"In the nine holes we played, I obviously was really impressed, but it’s hard, the first time you see somebody play golf, anybody out here can blow your mind for a day. So you just never know. It’s a big spot for a kid to be playing in a professional golf tournament. I was like, all right, so it wasn't – it's not one of those, hey, he had a great practice round day.
“He's a very, very good golfer. I think from the jump, anybody who played with him in college, I'm assuming high school, like there's just a golfing kind of gift there, but he doesn't take it for granted. It's not like he just sleeps on that. He works on it and tries to improve," Homa added.
Max Homa and Collin Morikawa will start the first round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at 8:52 am ET alongside Fitzpatrick's brother on the tenth hole.
"Max cares about the people" - Collin Morikawa praises Max Homa
Max Homa and Collin Morikawa garnered a lot of attention from the golf enthusiast ahead of the Zurich Classic. They are already the talk of the town, with people having high hopes for them.
Morikawa also praised his teammate in a pre-tournament press conference and said:
"Max cares about the people that are close to him. You can feel the love, and I'm very appreciative of that, but I told Golf Channel earlier and I'm going to keep saying it this week, we played a practice round at Augusta, and the compliments have just kept coming.
"I didn't do it as much last week, and I probably should have. I was playing in front of him. I didn't turn around and give him a thumbs up, say, ‘Hey, go make birdie,’ but there will be a lot of praise (for Homa), as well, this week, trust me,"ehe added.
Max Homa and Collin Morikawa last played at the RBC Heritage, where Homa missed the cut while Morikawa finished in 31st position.
The 2023 Zurich Classic of New Orleans will start this week on Thursday, April 20, and run through Sunday, April 23. Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will return to defend their titles and are one of the top-ranked teams to play this week.
In the 2023 edition of the championship, 80 teams will participate to win the $1.2 million prize money from the purse of $8.6 million.
