By Adam Stanley- PGA Tour
Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin picked a great time to make their first birdie of the back nine.
The duo had stayed steady enough after making the turn at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans as the volatility of the Foursomes format peaked Sunday, and the final groups navigated a weather delay for the second straight day.
But after Novak hit his tee shot at the penultimate hole to 35 feet, Griffin stepped up and rolled in the birdie, a two-shot swing with Jake Knapp and Frankie Capan III, who bogeyed the same hole.
That left Novak, who lost in a playoff to Justin Thomas last week at the RBC Heritage, and Griffin just needing a par on the final hole to win with a 28-under 260. They topped the Højgaard twins, Nicolai and Rasmus, by one shot.
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Novak and Griffin’s Round 4 winning highlights from the Zurich Classic
For each, Novak and Griffin, it was their maiden PGA TOUR title. A long time coming, and very much worth the wait.
“I think for both Andrew and I, it felt like it was only a matter of time out here. We both put ourselves in the mix a bunch, especially this season, but even going back to last season,” Griffin said. “Just a lot of hard work between both of us, and for me personally, it means the world to finally get it paid off or to finally get it done.
“I couldn’t think of a better guy to get it done with, right here with Andrew.”
Novak became the first golfer on TOUR to lose in a playoff and go on to win the next week since Patrick Cantlay in 2022. Cantlay, ironically enough, did the same thing – losing at the RBC Heritage and then going on to win at TPC Louisiana.
“I played well last week down the stretch, which was good to look back on. That was a positive,” Novak said. “There have been times down the stretch where I’ve had chances and haven’t played particularly well, so, I took some positives into this week.
“You never really know when you’re going to get your first one, but we put ourselves in position again.”
Team Ben Griffin/Andrew Novak tap in par to win the Zurich Classic
Since the team format was introduced at the Zurich Classic, Novak and Griffin became the second duo to make their first PGA TOUR wins at the event. Davis Riley and Nick Hardy claimed their first win at the event in 2023.
Novak has been trending toward this direction, with the win his third straight top-three finish – and fourth this season – on TOUR. This marks Griffin’s fourth top-10 result of 2025, meanwhile. He finished T4 in back-to-back weeks at the Mexico Open at VidantaWorld and Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches.
Griffin’s return to the TOUR has been long documented. He left professional golf to work as a loan officer for a mortgage group in North Carolina before resurrecting his golf career in 2021.
With golf being such an individual game, it was extra special for the duo to get this done together. The partnership “was easy,” Griffin said, as they had talked about partnering up the last few years. Novak and Griffin have known each other since junior golf, both North Carolina natives, and reconnected while living in Sea Island, Georgia, in recent years and working with the same strength coach.
“I think it’s just a full-circle moment. Andrew said that earlier, of us sitting up here together getting our first win,” Griffin said. “I feel like we’ve had similar tracks to where we are today.”
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Novak and Griffin’s interview after winning the Zurich Classic
Sunday was a curious day on the golf course for the pair, with the weather delay impacting them as they made the turn. The duo was able to navigate that with aplomb, running off their streak of pars after making the turn while others fell out of contention. The defending champions Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry made three bogeys in a stretch of five holes on their back nine. They finished in a tie for 12th.
Although McIlroy has a hearty hold on the top spot in the FedExCup standings, Novak has now moved to No. 6 with his first-ever TOUR trophy tilt.
The pair saved the best one-two punch of the day for the second-to-last hole (“That was huge for us,” Griffin said), but like so many first-time winners on TOUR, it wasn’t just one shot or one round that was the reason for their joint success. It was the work in the years leading up to this, together even. It was the decisions made, and the time and the effort they’ve put in own and that they’ve borne witness to from each other.
“It seems like a movie script, like it’s not real,” Novak said. “But it’s just perfect how it all came together.”
