Michael Brennan was not sure if he had ever gone viral before. His partner at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, Johnny Keefer, knew he was about to.

Small correction. By the time Brennan and Keefer had signed for their tournament-opening, 11-under 61, Brennan already had.

Brennan and Keefer started on the back nine on Thursday in New Orleans, but things got messy when the duo got to the par-5 18th. Brennan hit his approach into the water but found his ball – it was in a shallow, muddy area near the green. Given the nature of the tournament format, which lends itself to golfers perhaps taking a little more risk than usual, Brennan went tarp off and hit the shot, although barely, and it ended up fully in the water while Brennan was left with no shirt on.

“I was dropping it if I was just playing in a normal tournament, but Johnny had a birdie putt on the green. So I was, like, ‘Well, I guess we can try it,’” Brennan said. “But, yeah, it was fun.”

The pair went out in a 4-under 32 but caught fire on the front nine, going 7 under for their second nine of the day. They were three back with the afternoon wave underway as Alex Smalley and Hayden Springer tied the Four-ball course record at the event, shooting an incredible 14-under 58.

“I felt like we played really solid. On most holes we had looks for birdie. We converted a pretty good number of them, which was nice. It's good when you feel like you get some good stuff out of the round, and you don't feel like you leave too many out there. It was solid golf,” Brennan said. “Tomorrow is going to be fun. It will be different, unique, but really fun.”

It was a solid, if unspectacular, start for the pair who came into the week as one of the most impressive potential pairings. Brennan, of course, had a wonderful campaign on PGA TOUR Americas last year before winning the Bank of Utah Championship in October on a sponsor invite. Keefer also had a solid run on PGA TOUR Americas – he had nine top-10 finishes in 10 starts in 2024 – before finishing No. 1 on the Korn Ferry Tour Points List last year. Brennan is one of the longest hitters on TOUR (averaging more than 323 yards per pop and sitting fourth in Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee) while Keefer isn’t short either and is 19th in that same category.

That’s left them with a fairly straightforward approach to this week’s team competition.

“I feel like we play pretty similar games,” Brennan said. “(Our) strategy today was we just try to treat it like we were playing our own ball and ignore what the other person was doing, but then fist pump them at the end of the hole.”

And the fist pumping came, no matter their wardrobe situation.

“Just to have him have my back (and) just willing to even (hit a ball out of the water) and even just to put a smile on my face – I mean, that’s massive,” Keefer said of his partner. “It’s just kind of the team chemistry that we have, regardless of whether we’re in a hazard or not.”