Maiden victory last year vaulted both to their best seasons on Tour

NEW ORLEANS, LA (March 23, 2026)—Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak, 2025 Zurich Classic winners, will return to defend their title this year, announced Steve Worthy, CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, producer of the tournament.

“Both Ben and Andrew enjoyed breakthrough seasons including their victory here,” said Worthy. “We are excited to watch them build on their team success and see if they can become the first repeat winners since we launched our team format in 2017, ” Worthy added.

Griffin broke through for his first PGA Tour title in the 2025 Zurich Classic with Novak, then went on to win two more tournaments at the Charles Schwab Challenge a month later and the Worldwide Technology Championship to close out his season.

Coming into New Orleans, he was poised to grab his first win, as he had posted three top-10 finishes in the early months of the 2025 season. Overall in 2025, he scored three wins, two seconds and 12 top-10s and was selected for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Two of his top-10 finishes were at the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open.

Now ranked 16th in the world, he finished 2025 at eighth worldwide after starting 2025 at 68th. He is currently ranked fourth in U.S. President’s Cup points.

Griffin stepped away from the game of golf in 2022 and worked as a  loan officer for a mortgage group in North Carolina. He returned to the PGA Tour in 2022-23 and validated his decision by posting 12 top-25 and three top-10 finishes to earn nearly $3 million that season.

In the 2025 Ryder Cup, he was 1-1, winning his Sunday singles match against Rasmus Højgaard to bring the U.S. team within two points of a historic come-from-behind victory.

He played collegiately four seasons for the University of North Carolina, where he won three individual titles and broke the program record for career scoring average, a record once held by Davis Love III. He earned All-America Honorable Mentions in 2015 and 2017, All-America Scholar laurels in 2017 and 2018, and All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors in 2015 and 2018.

Griffin’s playing partner Andrew Novak also enjoyed his best season in 2025, with his first PGA Tour victory at the Zurich Classic in his 100th career start on the Tour. At the time, we was primed for a top finish himself, having lost a playoff in the RBC Heritage just a week before Zurich and tied for third in the Valero Texas Open two weeks earlier.

For the season in 2025, he posted 12 top-25 finishes and six top-10s to go with his title at the Zurich Classic, reaching 30thin the world after the Tour Championship.

He also won the Grant Thornton Invitational with LPGA player Lauren Coughlin, giving him a sweep of team tournaments for the year, an accomplishment he termed a modern-day team grand slam. They finished at 28-under, a new scoring record for the three-year event. 

Since earning his PGA Tour card in 2022, he has finished second twice, third twice, 14 times in the top 10 and 34 times in the top 25 in 118 tournaments. His best finish this year was a tie for seventh in the Farmers Insurance Open.

In college, he won four times playing for Wofford  College, was named 2017 Southern Conference Player of the Year and received an NCAA regional individual at-large bid twice. He holds the Wofford records for records for lowest tournament total (13-under), most career wins (4) and second-lowest round (65).

About Fore!Kids Foundation: 

Since 1958, the Fore!Kids Foundation has raised money to fund children's service organizations through golf events like the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and several charitable golf tournaments. 

In 2025, the Fore!Kids Foundation generated a record $3.6 million in charitable giving for children’s charities in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge metro areas. Charitable contributions have been rising in recent years:

  • $3.6 million in 2025
  • Over $24.6 million to charities in last 10 years
  • Over $55 million to charities since inception

More information at http://www.forekidsfoundation.com. 

About the Zurich Classic of New Orleans:

Zurich Insurance has sponsored the Zurich Classic of New Orleans for 22 years, one of the longest title sponsor relationships on the PGA Tour. The Zurich Classic is the only team tournament on the PGA TOUR season. Since launching the team format in 2017, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans has drawn some of the highest-ranking fields for any regular-season tournament on the PGA TOUR. 

The Zurich Classic has over a $59 million annual economic impact to the regional economy. With 51 hours of total television coverage on Golf Channel and CBS, a total of 20.94 million viewers tuned in to watch the tournament.

Internationally, PGA TOUR coverage of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is available across 148 countries and territories via local broadcast partners, and garners $33 million in positive national and international media exposure for both the city and state throughout the year beyond the days of professional competition. 

The tournament will be played April 20-26, 2026 at TPC Louisiana in Avondale. Purse for 2026 totals a record $9.5 million.

All tickets to the 2026 Zurich Classic will be mobile entry only. Day-specific grounds tickets are only $45. In addition, the Best of the Zurich Class Pass offers a variety of dishes from some of New Orleans most famous restaurants at three locations across the TPC course starting at $185 per day. The Walk-On’s Stadium Club offers close-up viewing at the 17thhole in the only two-story, air-conditioned tent on the course. Additional ticket options are available by calling the Tournament Office at 504-342-3000 or online at www.zurichgolfclassic.com