Zurich Classic of New Orleans – Preview & Picks

April 19, 2022

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Congrats to Jordan Spieth for winning the RBC Heritage despite his horrific putting performance. He was able to defeat Patrick Cantlay in a playoff on Sunday to capture his first win as a father.

We now move onto the Zurich Classic of New Orleans which is the only team event on the PGA Tour. The players will rotate between best ball and alternate shot formats making for some exciting golf. It’s one of the tough events to handicap and really give a detailed writeup on, so it’s going to be a shorter article and card this week.

Tournament Information:

Dates: April 21st, 2022- April 25th, 2022
Location: Avondale, Louisiana, United States
Course: TPC Louisiana
Par: 72 (4x 3’s / 10x 4’s / 4x 5’s)
Length: 7,400 yards
Format:
- Thursday (Rd. 1) / Saturday (Rd. 3): Four-Ball (Best Ball)
- Friday (Rd. 2)/ Sunday (Rd. 4): Foresomes (Alternate Shot)
Field/ Cut: 160 Players, 80 Teams | Top 33 Teams and Ties after 36 Holes
Greens: Mini verde bermudagrass overseeded with Poa
Fairways: TifSport bermudagrass
Rough: TifSport bermudagrass
Stimpmeter: 11.0 (Average)
Purse: $8,300,000 / Winners split $2,398,700 (each receive $1,199,350)
FedEx Cup Points: Winning duos will each get 400 FedExCup points
Bunkers: 71
Water Hazards: 5

Course Architect/ Comparable Courses:

Course Architect: Pete Dye w/ Steve Elkington and Kelly Gibson (2003)
Comparable Courses:
- TPC River Highlands – Travelers Championship – (Results)
- TPC Twin Cities – 3M Open – (Results)
- TPC Sawgrass – THE PLAYERS – (Results)

TV Information:

Round 1: Thursday, April 21st, 2022
- Golf Channel – 3:30 PM – 6:30 PM ET

Round 2: Friday, April 22nd, 2022
- Golf Channel – 3:30 PM – 6:30 PM ET

Round 3: Saturday, April 23rd, 2022
- Golf Channel – 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
- CBS – 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Round 4: Sunday, April 24th, 2022
- Golf Channel – 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM ET
- CBS – 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

Weather:

Thursday: Mostly Sunny 75 F, 14 mp/h SE, 59% Humidity, 10% Chance of Rain
Friday: Sunny 75 F, 16 mp/h ESE, 59% Humidity, 10% Chance of Rain
Saturday: Partly Cloudy 78 F, 16 mp/h SE, 65% Humidity, 20% Chance of Rain
Sunday: Isolated Thunderstorms 78 F, 15 mp/h SE, 64% Humidity, 30% Chance of Rain

Course/ Tournament History:

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans began in 1938, 84 years ago. However, it has been held annually since 1958. From the events inception it has been held at a variety of courses in the New Orleans are but since 2007 it was been held at TPC Louisiana.

The event was originally a stoke play event until 2017 when it became a team event. It is also the only team event on the PGA Tour.

Zurich Insurance Group is the main sponsor for this event and has been since 2005. In 1999, it became the “Classic of New Orleans” with the main sponsor having title rights and has since remained that way.

The purse has also increased to $8.3 Million with each winner recieving — from last years event where the purse was $7.4 Million.

Cam Smith is the only player to have won this event twice since it has shifted formats. He won back in 2017 with Jonas Blixit and again in 2021 with country-man Marc Leishman. Also something to note, that since 2017, this new format has resulted in two plays, both the years that Cam Smith won.

Billy Horschel is the only player to win both formats, winning the event back in 2013 and again in 2018 with Scott Piercy. Jason Dufner won the individual event in 2012 but, finished runner up to Horschel and Piercy in 2018.

Given the recent changes to the format, no team has yet to repeat as Champions. Leishman/ Smith do have that chance this week as they are the only previous winners with the same partners.

One joke you’ll hear a lot about this week is how Ryan Palmer continuously gets some of the worlds best players to pair with him. This year he’s paid with college teammate Scottie Scheffler, who has propelled himself to the No. 1 Golfer in the World winning four of his last six starts. Palmer won with Rahm back in 2019 and played with him again in 2021 finishing seventh. In 2018, he paired up with Jordan Spieth where they missed the cut.

Scorecard:

Source: John Haslbauer

For a hole by hole overview of the course, you can click the following link.

Key Statistics:

Strokes Gained: Ball Striking
Birdies or Better %
Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermuda)
Recent Form
Course History

The Field (Teams) / Odds:

Here’s a list of the teams:

Collin Morikawa	Viktor Hovland
Jason Day	Jason Scrivener
Cameron Smith	Marc Leishman
Sergio Garcia	Tommy Fleetwood
Scottie Scheffler	Ryan Palmer
Danny Willett	Tyrrell Hatton
Shane Lowry	Ian Poulter
Henrik Stenson	Justin Rose
Billy Horschel	Sam Burns
Kevin Kisner	Scott Brown
Xander Schauffele	Patrick Cantlay
Bubba Watson III	Harold Varner III
Max Homa	Talor Gooch
Joaquin Niemann	Mito Pereira
Ryan Brehm	Mark Hubbard
Joel Dahmen	Stephan Jaeger
Tyler Duncan	Adam Schenk
Lucas Glover	Chez Reavie
Branden Grace	Garrick Higgo
Lucas Herbert	Arjun Atwal
Jim Herman	Vaughn Taylor
Tom Hoge	Paul Barjon
Sungjae Im	Byeong An
Sung Kang	John Huh
Patton Kizzire	J.T. Poston
Martin Laird	Robert MacIntyre
Adam Long	Bo Hoag
Graeme McDowell	Seamus Power
Keith Mitchell	Brandt Snedeker
Chad Ramey	Joshua Creel
Sepp Straka	Greyson Sigg
Robert Streb	Troy Merritt
Brendon Todd	Chris Kirk
Martin Trainer	Jim Knous
Kevin Tway	Kelly Kraft
Richy Werenski	Peter Uihlein
Bill Haas	Jay Haas
Nick Watney	Charley Hoffman
Rafa Cabrera Bello	Emiliano Grillo
Tommy Gainey	Robert Garrigus
Sam Horsfield	Matt Wallace
Scott Piercy	Sean O’Hair
Alex Noren	Henrik Norlander
Keegan Bradley	Brendan Steele
Cameron Tringale	Wyndham Clark
Charl Schwartzel	Christiaan Bezuidenhout
Maverick McNealy	Joseph Bramlett
Harry Higgs	Austin Smotherman
Doug Ghim	Matthias Schwab
Brandon Hagy	Cameron Percy
Brian Stuard	Russell Knox
Doc Redman	Sam Ryder
Hank Lebioda	Chase Seiffert
Denny McCarthy	Ben Kohles
Adam Hadwin	Adam Svensson
James Hahn	Kevin Chappell
Matthew NeSmith	Taylor Moore
Kyle Stanley	Camilo Villegas
Brice Garnett	Scott Stallings
Chesson Hadley	Jonathan Byrd
Will Zalatoris	Davis Riley
Danny Lee	Sangmoon Bae
Seung-Yul Noh	Michael Kim
Sahith Theegala	Beau Hossler
Alex Smalley	Hayden Buckley
Lee Hodges	Vince Whaley
Patrick Rodgers	Brandon Wu
Aaron Rai	David Lipsky
Max McGreevy	Andrew Novak
Kurt Kitayama	Kiradech Aphibarnrat
Trey Mullinax	Wesley Bryan
Curtis Thompson	Nick Hardy
Seth Reeves	Jared Wolfe
Justin Lower	Dylan Wu
Austin Cook	Jason Dufner
Callum Tarren	David Skinns
Scott Gutschewski	D.A. Points
Michael Gligic	Ryan Armour
Dawie van der Walt	Brett Drewitt
Bo Van Pelt	Ben Martin

Collin Morikawa & Viktor Hovland (+650 – DraftKings)

These two will pair up at the Zurich for the first time and are your current favorites at +650. Both of these guys are currently ranked inside the Top 10 in the World with ranking 2nd and 5th respectively. Collin and Viktor are elite iron players both ranking inside the top 10 in terms of SG: Approach. They’re also great off the tee with the only area of concern for these two being their short game (SG: Around the Green).

Morikawa played with Matthew Wolff last year where they missed the cut finishing 3 over. Viktor Hovland played well fellow country-men Kris Ventura last year finishing T25 at 11 under-par.

Scottie Scheffler & Ryan Palmer (+900 – DraftKings)

The Worlds best and hottest golfer, Scottie Scheffler is playing with Ryan Palmer. As I previously mentioned in this article, given Palmer’s recruiting skills it’s not all that surprising. Scheffler has been nuclear in the past few months while Ryan Palmer brings the veteran presence to this team having won back in 2019. Oddly enough, that was the last time Ryan Palmer has won on Tour. Scheffler also doesn’t have a bad course history as well finishing T8 at this event in 2021 with Bubba Watson.

Cam Smith & Marc Leishman (+1000 – DraftKings)

The defending Champions will look to retain their crown at TPC Louisiana. Cam Smith has won twice on Tour this season along with finishing T3 at the Masters. Leishman has yet to win on Tour this year but, hasn’t had a bad season finishing top 10 in three of his twelve events.

Both of these guys are great approach players while also ranking well in SG: Around the Green and Putting. Leishman has the distance off the tee while Smith is a better iron player so it’ll be interesting watching them try and structure that on alternate shot days.

Patrick Cantlay & Xander Schauffele (+800 – DraftKings)

This pairing finished T11 at last years event and also played as a team in the Ryder Cup. Cantlay is coming off a playoff loss to Jordan Spieth at the RBC Heritage last week so I’m sure he’ll be looking to put that one behind him quickly. Despite failing to win on Tour this season, the defending FedExCup Champion has had a good start to the year finishing T10 in five of his nine events played. Xander on the other hand, only has one T10 finish this year despite ranking well in most Strokes Gained categories.

Xander is a great iron and short game player with Cantlay ranking better in SG: Off the Tee and Putting. This should be an interesting pairing for sure given the chemistry they’ve developed and how their skill sets compliment each other.

To see the most up to date odds, you can click the following link.

To find out how everyone in the field has qualified, you can click the following link.

Previous Winners Scores

Prior to 2017, this was an individual event.