Zurich Classic of New Orleans: PGA Golf Odds And Predictions
Zurich Classic of New Orleans Background
The past two winners on the PGA Tour have been fairly anonymous no-names in Satoshi Kodaira and Andrew Landry, each getting their first-ever victories on Tour. This week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans also used to be a rather anonymous Tour stop, and it struggled to draw some of the bigger names positioned two weeks before the Players Championship.
So last year, tournament organizers made this tournament the only official team event on Tour. It also allowed the top committed players to choose their own playing partner so they could play with buddies. This year, the first and third rounds are four-ball (also known as best ball) and the second and fourth rounds are foursomes (or alternate shot). It’s somewhat like the Ryder Cup but meant to be a lot less stressful. To bring even more levity to the proceedings, golfers this year will be able to select their own walk-up music for the first time much like a baseball hitter does when striding to the plate or a closer when summoned from the bullpen.
A total of 18 of the world’s top 30 players are set to play in a field of 80 teams. It has even drawn some big names from the past such as David Duval and John Daly. The tournament is held just outside New Orleans at TPC Louisiana, a par 72 measuring 7,425 yards.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans Odds Favourites
It’s much tougher handicapping a team event like this because there’s little background information to go on. You are very dependent on how your partner plays.
The biggest-name duo in the field is England’s Justin Rose and Sweden’s Henrik Stenson, and they are +650 favourites. Golf fans may remember that Rose won gold at the Rio Olympics and Stenson silver. They played here last year and missed the cut at 6 under. The cut is made per usual after 36 holes but to the Top 35 teams with ties.
The Patricks, Cantlay and Reed, are +1200. Reed tees it up for the first time since winning his first major championship title at the Masters. The duo finished tied for 14th last year at 17 under. A third-round 75 killed them. Ryan Palmer/Jordan Spieth, Bud Cauley/Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson/Matt Kuchar are each +1400. Palmer and Spieth finished fourth last year at 22 under.
The defending champions are Jonas Blixt at Cameron Smith, priced at +3500. They finished at 27 under and beat Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown on the fourth hole of a Monday playoff. Thunderstorms had delayed the final round so there wasn’t enough light to stage a playoff on Sunday.
The Canadian team of Mackenzie Hughes and Corey Conners is +20000. Hughes played here with Nick Taylor in 2017 and they missed the cut at 2 under. Hughes/Conners chose the walk-up song “Big League” by Tom Cochrane, which has become an anthem for the town of Humboldt in the wake of the tragedy involving the junior hockey team there. Canada’s Ben Silverman and American Matt Atkins are +17500.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans Golf Predictions
The winning team at +2500 will be the Spanish duo of Rafa Cabrera-Bello and Sergio Garcia, with Sergio knowing this format well from his days as a stellar Ryder Cup player.