Zurich Classic of New Orleans
Scottie Scheffler showed no signs of a Masters hangover as he won his fourth event of the season by three strokes at the RBC Heritage as a 4-1 pre-tournament favorite on Sunday. Scheffler led the field for Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee, plus ranked second for both Driving Accuracy and Greens In Regulation.
Sahith Theegala finished three strokes back at 16 under. Wyndham Clark and Patrick Cantlay finished T-3 at 15 under. Justin Thomas, Patrick Rodgers, J.T. Poston and Sepp Straka finished at 14 under, good for a four-way tie for fifth.
The good news for this week’s field at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans is that World No. 1 Scheffler is taking this week off as his first child is due shortly. Even in a team event, the other players on the PGA Tour need a break from Scottie.
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele (5-1) won this event two years ago and are once again the pre-event favorites.
Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry (8-1) paired together once in the 2021 Ryder Cup (a fourball defeat to Tony Finau and Harris English).
Sahith Theegala and Will Zalatoris (10-1) as well as Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama (16-1) are first-time pairings.
Two pairs of brothers — Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard (18-1) and Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick (28-1) — make return appearances to the event.
Defending champions Nick Hardy and Davis Riley (66-1) return as do runners-up Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin (40-1), who make up one Canadian team with Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith (25-1) being the other.
The Event
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans has a history that dates to 1938 and has been played annually on the PGA Tour since 1958. Swiss insurance company Zurich took over as the tournament sponsor in 2005 and the Fore! Kids Foundation serves as the event organizer. In 2017, the Zurich Classic became a team event with 80 teams of two players with 33 teams making the weekend cut. The event winners do not receive Masters invitations nor OWGR points but do earn 500 FedEx Cup points, two-year PGA Tour exemptions, plus invitations to the PGA Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions and The Players Championship.
In the first round, the teams will compete in fourball (best ball), which sees each player use his own ball, with the teammate with the lowest score on each hole providing that team’s score per hole.
There’s a change for the second round, with foursomes (alternate shot) the order of the day, as team members alternate shots with the same ball.
After the end of Friday’s action, there is a cut that sees the top 33 teams and ties make it to the weekend. The remaining teams once again play a round of fourball on Saturday before finishing with another round of foursomes, when one of the teams is declared the winner.
In the event of a tie at the end of Sunday’s action, a sudden-death playoff will be held with the two formats alternating after each hole until a winner is found.
The Field
Here are the 80 two-man teams for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans:
The Course
TPC Louisiana has hosted the Zurich Classic of New Orleans since 2005 (except 2006 when course renovations post-Hurricane Katrina forced a move back to English Turn). It is in Avondale, which is a 15-minute drive southwest of Bourbon Street. The track was designed by Pete Dye in 2004 and renovated by Chris Gray in 2012. It is a public course of 7,425 yards and plays as a par-72. The layout is defended by 106 bunkers (fourth most on tour) and five water hazards that are in play on seven holes. Two days after the 2019 tournament, the greens were redone with TifEagle Bermuda grass (changing from MiniVerde Bermuda) overseeded with Poa Trivialis, and the fairways (34.5-yard average width — 15th widest on tour) were transformed to Celebration Bermudagrass. The greens are 5,225 square feet on average and relatively average speed (12 on stimpmeter).
The rough is only two inches and fairly non-penal.
There is no elevation on this course, which is the flattest layout on the PGA Tour.
Pete Dye is the designer, and there are several Dye courses every year on the PGA Tour schedule if you are looking for a course correlation. They include:
Austin Country Club — WGC Dell Match Play since 2016
Crooked Stick — 2012 and 2016 BMW Championship
Harbour Town — RBC Heritage
Ocean Course, Kiawah Island — 2012 PGA Championship
TPC River Highlands — The Travelers
TPC Sawgrass — The Players Championship
TPC Stadium, PGA West — The American Express since 2016
Whistling Straits — 2010 and 2015 PGA Championship
Other correlated courses are the other TPCs on the PGA Tour including TPC Twin Cities and TPC Scottsdale along with Detroit Golf Club.
Recent History/Winners
2023: Nick Hardy/Davis Riley (-30/258); 40-1
2022: Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele (-29/259); 9-1
2021: Marc Leishman/Cameron Smith (-20/268); 12-1*
2020: Tournament canceled (COVID-19)
2019: Ryan Palmer/Jon Rahm (-26/262); 16-1
2018: Billy Horschel/Scott Piercy (-22/266); 40-1
2017: Jonas Blixt/Cameron Smith (-27/261); 100-1**
Playoff win over Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel – *
Playoff win over Scott Brown/Kevin Kisner – **
Statistical Analysis
With a unique team format of fourballs and foursomes each for two days, it is probably a fool’s errand to try to form a traditional model for this week. However, we can examine a couple of general overarching stats.
Total Strokes Gained provides the best gauge of a player’s all-around play not only tee-to-green but around and on the greens as well.
Strokes Gained: Total — Average Per Round (Last 24 rounds)
- Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay 2.63
- Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy 2.37
- Sahith Theegala/Will Zalatoris 2.05
- Billy Horschel/Tyson Alexander 1.91
- Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry 1.88
- Matt Fitzpatrick/Alex Fitzpatrick 1.83
- Davis Thompson/Andrew Novak 1.29
- Dylan Wu/Justin Lower 1.16
- Taylor Montgomery/Ben Griffin 1.03
- Doug Ghim/Chan Kim 1.03
Making birdies is the name of the game here as -30 and -29 have been winning scores here the last two years.
Birdie Or Better Gained — Total Combined (Last 24 rounds)
- Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry 20.2
- Taylor Pendrith/Corey Conners 19.4
- Garrick Higgo/Ryan Fox 19.4
- Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy 18.9
- Billy Horschel/Tyson Alexander 17.8
- Dylan Wu/Justin Lower 17.2
- Sahith Theegala/Will Zalatoris 14.5
- Max Greyserman/Nico Echavarria 13.5
- Rasmus Højgaard/Nicolai Højgaard 13.3
- Hayden Springer/Tom Whitney 11.9
The irons have to be on point here, especially in the alternate shot/foursomes format.
Strokes Gained: Approach — Total Combined (Last 24 rounds)
- Keith Mitchell/Joel Dahmen 34.8
- Sahith Theegala/Will Zalatoris 27.9
- Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry 27.8
- Corey Conners/Taylor Pendrith 25.9
- Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy 25.1
- Victor Perez/Daniel Berger 22.1
- Russell Knox/Peter Malnati 20.6
- Doug Ghim/Chan Kim 18.3
- Andrew Novak/Davis Thompson 18.1
- Henrik Norlander/Luke List 18
Six of the last seven winners before 2017 ranked inside the top 10 for putting average, and each of the last four gained at least 4.2 strokes putting.
Strokes Gained: Putting — Total Combined (Last 24 rounds)
- Taylor Montgomery/Ben Griffin 38.5
- Billy Horschel/Tyson Alexander 19.6
- Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy 18.1
- Chad Ramey/Martin Trainer 16.1
- Matt Fitzpatrick/Alex Fitzpatrick 15.2
- Beau Hossler/Sam Ryder 14.2
- Russell Knox/Peter Malnati 14.1
- Ben Silverman/Kevin Dougherty 14
- Garrick Higgo/Ryan Fox 13.8
- Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay 12.8
Three of the four par-5s are easily reachable in two shots and all four must make for birdies and even a couple of eagles if a team wants to win this week.
Strokes Gained: Par-5s — Total Combined (Last 24 rounds)
- Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay 27.4
- Sahith Theegala/Will Zalatoris 25
- Thorbjørn Olesen/Matt Wallace 21.6
- Hayden Springer/Tom Whitney 18
- Matt Fitzpatrick/Alex Fitzpatrick 17.7
- Jhonattan Vegas/Bronson Burgoon 16.4
- Kelly Kraft/Kevin Tway 14.5
- Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry 13.5
- Norman Xiong/Ryan McCormick 12.1
- Harry Hall/Scott Piercy 10.5
Selections
Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy (25-1, BetMGM)
Hoge’s approach game plus McNealy’s putting should make them one of the teams to beat.
Nick Taylor/Adam Hadwin (31-1, Circa Sports)
Taylor is already a winner this year in Phoenix, and his fellow Canadian Hadwin, who was tackled by overzealous security last year at the RBC Canadian Open celebrating Taylor’s victory, has three top-6 finishes in 2024.
Taylor Moore/Matthew NeSmith (45-1, Circa Sports)
This duo has finished fourth here in each of the last two years.
Davis Thompson/Andrew Novak (45-1, Circa Sports)
Both players are based at the Sea Island Resort. Thompson was second on a Pete Dye design at the 2023 AMEX and Novak is playing the best golf of his career on the PGA Tour.
Justin Lower/Dylan Wu (75-1, Boyd Sports)
Both are birdie makers and can shoot low scores, especially in the four balls.
