The 2022 Zurich Classic of New Orleans: PGA Tour Betting Odds
The teams of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, and Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa are co-favourites.
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans was your typical 72-hole stroke-play event through 2016 but many top players were skipping and attendance was lagging so organizers changed in 2017 to the current two-man team format where higher-ranked world players can pick their own partners.
The first and third rounds are four-ball, and the second and final rounds are foursomes. If you aren’t familiar, in four-ball the players on each team play their ball for the entire round and the best score on each hole is counted. In foursomes, one player will hit the tee shots on all the odd-numbered holes and the other will hit the tee shot on even-numbered holes and then they alternate shots on each hole. The total number of strokes is the score.
The field is 80 teams and the cut following the second round is to the low 33 teams and ties. If teams are tied after 72 holes, there will be a hole-by-hole sudden-death playoff will be contested with the first hole played as foursomes, the second as four-balls and etc.
TPC Louisiana is the host course, a par 72 at around 7,425 yards that includes wetlands. The signature hole is the par-5 18th, which is reachable in two but features plenty of water and bunkers.
There was a playoff last year after two teams finished regulation at 20-under. Aussies Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith beat South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel on the second extra hole after Oosthuizen drove into the water, leading to a bogey. Both those teams shot 63s in the four-ball rounds.
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans Golf Odds
Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, and Viktor Hovland and Collin Morikawa are the +800 favourites. Cantlay lost Sunday in a playoff to Jordan Spieth at the RBC Heritage. Morikawa missed the cut in 2021 here with Matthew Wolff, while Hovland was T25 with Kris Ventura.
Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith are +900 to repeat. Smith is the only player with two wins in the team format version of this tournament, also winning in 2017 with Jonas Blixt and also in a playoff. The other two times, Smith missed the cut.
Ryan Palmer and Scottie Scheffler are +1000, and Sam Burns and Billy Horschel +1200. Scheffler is the runaway PGA Tour Player of the Year so far as the world No. 1 and Masters champion. He was T8 here last year with Bubba Watson. Palmer won with Jon Rahm in 2019. Horschel won this tournament in 2013 when it was the old format and then with Scott Piercy in 2018.
No Canadian has won this tournament in the team format. Michael Gligic teamed with American Vincent Whaley last year and the finished T29. David Hearn played with American Zack Sucher, and they were 32nd. Teams involving Nick Taylor and Roger Sloan missed the cut.
Adam Hadwin is playing with Adam Svensson this week, and they are +6600. Gligic is +30000 with Ryan Armour.
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans Golf Predictions
The winning team is England’s Tommy Fleetwood and Spain’s Sergio Garcia at +1600. They were runners-up in 2019 and Fleetwood also has a T4 with a different partner.