The Zurich Classic Preview
The Zurich Classic Preview:
The PGA Tour travels down to the Bayou this week for the Zurich Classic. TPC Louisiana in Avondale will play host to the unique two-man team tournament this week. A little break in the usual single stroke play action, the Zurich Classic will have 160 players form 80 two man teams and play two rounds (first and third rounds) best ball and two rounds (second and fourth) as alternate shot. This is the 6th year of this team format and should be an enjoyable event.
The Field:
This year the field is not as flashy as years’ past. It also did not get selected as an elevated event so the money to draw the huge names was not available to offer. The defending champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele will team up again to try and repeat. Both coming off top 15 finishes at the Masters and top 5 finishes at RBC Heritage. They will be hard to defeat this year based on this pairs’ recent performances. The remaining field is scattered with good players such as Sam Burns, Billy Horschel, Tom Kim, Si Woo Kim, Jimmy Walker and a few others. The field will also have older players such as Jon Daly, David Duval, Craig Stadler, Steve Stricker, and Geoff Ogilvy. For most of the teams I have only heard of one of the players or neither so it should make for an interesting weekend.
The Course:
TPC Louisiana was established in 2004 and is another Pete Dye designed masterpiece. Riddled with water on 8 holes and in true Pete Dye fashion the course has small greens with bunkers upon bunkers lining fairways and guarding greens. Throw in a few alligators along the way and you have a difficult course setup.
The Bets:
Heavy favorites will be the defending champs Cantlay/Schauffele +300 but we here at DDSN try to sniff out better numbers for y’all.
Here’s where I’ll be putting my money for the weekend:
To Win:
Kim/Kim +1400
Burns/Horschel +1400
Taylor/Hadwin +3500
Hoge/English +3500
Longshot teams:
Gordon/Thompson +7000
Walker/Points +12500
Top 5 Finish:
Cantlay/Schauffele (-120)