ZURICH CLASSIC: New Orleans is a great city, a place of friendship, camaraderie, and good times, so it’s only fitting that the Big Easy plays host to the PGA Tour’s only team event, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Of course, this tournament used to be an ordinary stroke-play affair, but the format was changed in 2017 and the event was revitalized, as the world’s top players jumped at the chance to partner up with friends and colleagues for a week that won’t be quite as pressure-packed as what they normally experience on Tour. Plus, the eligibility requirements state that only one player needs full PGA Tour status, with that player (based on PGA Tour priority standings) getting to choose his partner, so long as the partner has some form of status or is granted a sponsor’s exemption. That makes for some unusual and interesting pairings, with several guys choosing to play with friends, countrymen, old college teammates, or even relatives, though the Koepka Bros. have decided to sit this one out.
There will be 80 teams total, with the field cut to 33 after Friday. The first and third rounds will be best-ball (fourball), while Friday and Sunday will feature the more stressful alternate shot (foursomes). The venue will once again be TPC Louisiana, a Pete Dye design that is fairly friendly by Tour standards, with ample space off the tee and not as much severity around the greens as you normally expect from a Dye track. At 7,425 yards, it’s plenty long, and a new strain of Bermuda has been planted since this tournament was last staged in 2019, but the players generally tear the place apart, and this year should be no different. Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer posted 26-under in 2019 to take home the trophy, including 10-under in the alternate shot portion, so you’d better bring your birdies this week.
The Rahm/Palmer team heads BETDAQ’s Win Market at 9.0, where they’re joined by the only pairing of top-10 players, Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele. The next tier includes the Aussie duo of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman (12.5), bombers Tony Finau and Cameron Champ (24.0), Collin Morikawa/Matthew Wolff (24.0), and Scottie Scheffler/Bubba Watson (16.5). It’s worth noting that we’ve already seen one triple-digit winner in the three years since this tournament switched to a team format, and last time we saw longshots like Brian Gay/Rory Sabbatini, K.H. Lee/Matt Every, and Hank Lebioda/Curtis Luck all sneak into the top-5. It’s my feeling that the format opens things up quite a bit for some of the lesser-known players. With that in mind, here’s what I’m thinking this week:
WIN MARKET
Recommendations to BACK (odds in parenthesis)
Cameron Smith/Marc Leishman (12.5)- Of the teams near the top of the market, I like the Aussies this week, as they both have displayed fine form of late and Smith in particular has excelled in this format, posting 27-under with partner Jonas Blixt to take home the victory back in 2017. Leishman is coming off a top-5 at the Masters, while Smith has finished 17th or better in each of his past five starts, including a T9 at the Heritage last week that saw him open with a 62 and close with a 66. These guys should light up the scoreboard this week– don’t be scared off by the short odds.
Jason Kokrak/Pat Perez (60.0)- Kokrak has been a machine of late, posting three straight top-10s heading into the Masters and then playing 54 good holes in the year’s first major before Augusta National tripped him up to the tune of a 77 on Sunday. Perez hasn’t quite been meeting the standard of his partner lately, but he’s made the cut in 3 of his past 4 starts and he nearly won this tournament in 2018, finishing runner-up with partner Jason Dufner. Kokrak’s prodigious length off the tee gives this team some extra alternate shot spice… they feel like a dangerous pairing and an excellent value at a price like 60.0.
Scott Piercy/Akshay Bhatia (325.0)- If you’re looking for a deep sleeper this week, you may want to consider the Piercy/Bhatia team, who can currently be backed at a whopping 325.0 at BETDAQ. Piercy excels in a team format, winning this event with partner Billy Horschel in 2018, and though he hasn’t made any serious noise this season, he’s been quietly solid, making the cut in 10 of his past 12 starts. His partner, Bhatia, is a young phenom who turned pro two years ago, at age 17, after being the top-ranked junior player in the world and the only American high-schooler to ever play on a Walker Cup team. He hasn’t yet attained status on any of the major worldwide tours, but he’s shown what he’s capable of when given the chance, finishing T9 in last year’s Safeway Open and T30 at the AT&T Pebble Beach a couple of months ago after being granted sponsor’s exemptions for both tournaments. This is a huge opportunity for him, and I have a hunch this team could surprise some people. They’re well worth a bet at such long odds.
