ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS

April 23, 2026

Gordon Sargent

Nick Dunlap

TPC Louisiana

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Tied for the best round of the afternoon. Initial thoughts from each of you on that performance.

GORDON SARGENT: Yeah, I feel like we both were in most of the holes. Kind of nice to have a partner to rely on. That takes a little pressure off. Yeah, nice to get off to a good start.

I don't think either of us are going to take good golf for granted, so hopefully a good day tomorrow.

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, I think half of this tournament is picking a good horse. Yeah, he played great. I was out of the hole a couple of times on the front and caught a little hot streak on the back, but I thought overall we both played really nice.

THE MODERATOR: Nick, talk about the stretch ten through 12 there you went birdie, eagle, birdie. What was working well? You hit eight of the last nine fairways too.

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah. I don't know. I think my game has been trending.

It's just a matter of trusting it out there. That's, you know, kind of the final piece. I hit a nice drive on seven and just kind of tried to bank off that. Yeah, like I said, I had the a couple of bad ones early, but got on a heater there for a second.

Q. Were you able to diagnose anything late on that front nine while Gordon was picking up the slack a little bit and that turned it around?

NICK DUNLAP: Like I said, it's just trusting it. I haven't been playing my best golf as of late, but it's been getting better. Now I've got to go out there and trust that it is good.

Like I said, it's making some nice strides. I'm seeing some good shots. Like I said, saw that good drive on seven and just kind of rolled off that.

Q. Gordon, you guys have experience playing foursomes together. What do you feel like is going to give you guys a little bit of an advantage tomorrow?

GORDON SARGENT: Yeah, I think just having that friendly partnership. We're out there just going to play golf. We're not trying to, you know, put each other in a good spot. We're just going to go play, have fun with it. We've both hit a lot of bad shots, a lot of good shots, so it's just like we'll go hit it from where it is.

Q. Do you feel like it's an advantage or disadvantage playing four ball in the afternoon when I guess it would theoretically be a little tougher?

GORDON SARGENT: I don't think we necessarily had any -- I think we were just going to go out there. It was nice to get two balls to play off the first and then go from there.

Yeah, it's a format we're not used to. I think it freed us both up a little bit, so yeah, I don't know. I don't think we had a preference of when we played, but I just wanted the opportunity.

NICK DUNLAP: I personally like playing later really. It's nice. Especially when you are playing nice, you can kind of just kind of keep going.

Q. Nick, you spent a little extra time on the range I guess it was Tuesday hitting the driver and stuff. Any changes that you've made recently with that? If there hasn't been an equipment change, what's been the swing thought?

NICK DUNLAP: For me I've always liked to kind of exit low and left and kind of hit a squeeze fade. I think for a while I kind of got the handle kind of high. It was pretty draggy. To not hit it right, I just flipped the crap out of it, basically.

That's kind of the last piece I'm still battling is a little right at the last second just kind of throwing the right handle at it. But, yeah, if I keep that handle low enough, I just trust it and keep going. Like I said, it's there. I just got to trust it.

Q. Gordon, off the tee you've been really strong this year. What was the switch for you I guess maybe late last year that got you back on track?

GORDON SARGENT: A big part of it is trusting it. Like, it's not like you -- maybe you might have some physical flaws, but really if you just go out there and swing it, it's not going to go that far offline.

The ones that go offline are when you kind of have some doubt in your mind. I think just trying to get past that a little bit, not really worrying too much about the outcome. Just focus on hitting it solid and just go and play from wherever it ends up.

Q. Does it feel better that this round comes with you guys together?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, absolutely.

GORDON SARGENT: We both obviously want to play good for each other. Neither of us started the season great, so hopefully get a little spark going. We're a team, so we're obviously rooting for each other.

Q. There was never a chance you were going to play college golf together back in the day, was there?

GORDON SARGENT: No.

NICK DUNLAP: I think prior to NIL -- I don't really remember before NIL.

Q. You guys were a little bit before NIL, right?

NICK DUNLAP: Yeah, I wasn't that far. I think it was that next year is when it started.

No, I just -- I kind of always thought I was going to go to Bama and then with Hunter being there as the assistant, it was an easy one for me.

Q. Did you visit Bama?

GORDON SARGENT: I did, yeah. I grew up 45 minutes from there and two hours from Auburn. I was kind of -- kind of wanted to get out of the state just to get away from -- my whole high school goes to one of those two schools. I kind of wanted to go do my own thing, and yeah, fell in love with Vanderbilt when I visited.

Q. What was the most interesting conversation you guys had today that did not involve golf?

NICK DUNLAP: Had a good one yesterday about aliens and --

GORDON SARGENT: We talked about conspiracy theories yesterday, but today --

NICK DUNLAP: Casino gambling. I don't know. Nothing really. I thought we just kind of had good vibes from the start. Gordon went out and birdied one and smiled and keep going.