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Grab your partner, the PGA Tour is set to take on a different shape this week as players join forces down in New Orleans, Louisiana. 80 teams of two are to participate in this year’s Zurich Classic in what will be the fifth edition of the team event.
Rotating between Best-Ball and Alternate Shot – think Ryder Cup format without Sunday Singles – players with familiarity with their partner’s game have often found the most success. Just last year a pair of Presidents Cup teammates from Australia gave substance to this theory as Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman came out on top at TPC Louisiana.
Getting the better of South Africans Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel, who is with Christiaan Bezuidenhout this year, that is not to say every team is a match made in heaven. In fact, I look forward to this week each season with an eye for the arranged marriages. Last year, this honor went to Akshay Bhatia and Scott Piercy as the two share an agent and the young phenom received a last-minute sponsor’s invitation into the event.
This year is a major letdown as players appear keen to partner up early in the season thus avoiding the awkward “Nice to meet you” on the first-tee partnership I long for. It is still early in the week so there is time for this to change, but what is not likely to change is Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland (+800) atop the odds board at PointsBet Sportsbook.
They both participated in this event last season albeit with different teammates as Morikawa missed the cut with Matthew Wolff and Hovland was in contention with Kristoffer Ventura before a final round of 6-over 78 in Alternate Shot.
The duo is the clear belle of the ball as both rank inside the top-five in the Official World Golf Rankings. As an added bonus, they have played together in a team event before, although that came at Whistling Straits last fall when Morikawa captured the winning point for the United States Ryder Cup Team against Hovland in Sunday Singles.
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Not quite the same, they will be a difficult team to surpass, but sometimes experience outweighs talent. Seasoned teams amongst the favorites to share country, university, or friendship include: Patrick Cantlay-Xander Schauffele (+850), Tommy Fleetwood-Sergio Garcia (+1600), Tyrrell Hatton-Danny Willett (+3000), Keegan Bradley-Brendan Steele (+3300), and Chris Kirk-Brendon Todd (+4000).
Omitted from this list are Ryan Palmer and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (+1000). Jokes of the low hanging fruit variety will be made -- and have been made by Justin Thomas -- of Palmer’s choice of teammate as Jon Rahm has been sidelined due to his inability to win. Whether or not Palmer has blackmail on the world’s top players remains to be unseen, but it was actually Billy Horschel and Sam Burns (+1200) who I was originally interested in.
I am unable to convince myself of buying into this price in an event such as this, despite last year’s winner coming in at +1200. I am hoping a week alongside Horschel will annoy Burns enough to throw him off his game even though their history together suggests otherwise.
Instead, the friends of Max Homa and Talor Gooch (+2800) are sure to be a popular launching point in selections. For what it is worth, I bet on this team last season at +4000 before it was cool, but I am willing to see if the second time is the charm.
They arrive this year in arguably better form as Homa finally made a cut in a major championship and Gooch was impressive in his first appearance in the Masters. Having time to recharge after a stressful week at Augusta National, they will now look to follow up their 2021 Zurich Classic debut.
Signing for rounds of 66-71-67-70, the team finished in a tie for 17th-place, falling short in the Best-Ball format where they bled seven-strokes to the eventual winners. With Homa being a top-20 ball-striker on the PGA Tour and Gooch with the potential to be one himself, they should be able to sort things out on Thursday and Saturday. If so, Homa’s ball-striking with Gooch’s around-the-green presence makes for an attractive Alternate Shot partnership as they showcased last year.
Alternate Shot is where teams will either make or break their week as Brandt Snedeker and Keith Mitchell (+6600) demonstrated in 2021. Carding rounds of 66-71-64-69, the SEC duo was second in the field in Alternate Shot scoring behind only the team of Peter Uihlein and Richy Werenski (+15000).
The Georgia Bulldog has not played since the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, but was someone I was betting on a regular basis in both California and Florida. A completely different player this season, a win appears imminent for Mitchell as he continues to be one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world.
Snedeker on the other hand could pose as the problem child given his 2022, but that is not to say he has not shown flashes. The Valero Texas Open was his for the taking and if he had just putted to his historical baseline, he would have at least played himself into a playoff as he posted +11.00 Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green.
It is unlikely the Vanderbilt product repeats this performance, but he was in a similar slump last season before San Antonio. A turning point in 2021, perhaps it will serve as one in 2022 starting this week at the Zurich Classic.
Being an odd week on the PGA Tour, I will leave the outright selections at that. There are a few more teams which caught my eye down board in Maverick McNealy and Joseph Bramlett (+5000), David Lipsky and Aaron Rai (+12500), and Hayden Buckley and Alex Smalley (+12500), but ultimately have decided to stick with only two.
Outright Selections:
Max Homa + Talor Gooch +2800 at Caesars Sportsbook (1.18 units)
Brandt Snedeker + Keith Mitchell +6600 at BetRivers (0.50 units)
Outrights YTD: +59.65 units, +143.87%
Total YTD: +40.74 units, 35.73%
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