The PGA Tour takes a departure from the norm with its annual pairs event: the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisiana.
The field consists of 80 teams of two (160 players in all) with the top available players from the PGA Tour’s Priority Rankings choosing a partner.
It’s a standard Thursday to Sunday format with the teams playing fourballs in rounds one and three and foursomes in rounds two and four.
The cut comes after two rounds with the low 33 teams and ties making it through.
TPC Louisiana plays host and the Pete Dye track is a stock par 72 measuring 7,425 yards.
This event was originally a standard 72 holes of strokeplay where winning scores from 2012 to 2016 were -19, -20, -19, -22, -15.
Since it became a pairs tournament, the winning duos have posted -27 (Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith), -22 (Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy), -26 (Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer) and -20 (Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith).
Angles to consider
1/ Course form
In the four editions of this being a pairs event, Cameron Smith has won it twice. In addition, Billy Horschel has won here in both the original format (2013) and in tandem with Scott Piercy (2018). Past course form looks important.
2/ Pete Dye form
This angle has been reinforced recently by Cam Smith. The Aussie won the Players Championship on Dye’s most famous creation, TPC Sawgrass, in March and, as mentioned, he’s a double winner here. Another Dye track, Harbour Town, was used last week which could help identify the winner.
3/ Par breakers
A look at winning scores shows that making birdies and the odd eagle is imperative to top the leaderboard. There are four par 5s at TPC Louisiana so the course throws up plenty of chances. Par breakers looks a good stat to peruse as it measures birdies and eagles.
Selections
The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected.
Harold Varner & Bubba Watson
Varner has just finished tied third at Hilton Head so brings Pete Dye form to the table while he was eighth here in the event’s final year as a 72-hole strokeplay tournament. He sits 11th in Par Breakers. Bubba won here in 2011, has been fifth and eighth in the pairs format and is a double winner at Dye’s TPC River Highlands.
Tommy Fleetwood & Sergio Garcia
The two Euro stars had fun here in 2019, finishing runners-up to Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer, and both are showing enough recent form to make us think they can challenge again. Garcia, also a winner at Dye’s Sawgrass, was tied 23rd at Augusta last time while Fleetwood was 14th at Augusta and 10th at Dye’s Harbour Town last week. Fleetwood was also fourth here on his only other appearance in 2018 (with Paul Casey).
Sam Burns & Billy Horschel
There are several powerhouse pairs at the front of the betting but of the six teams between 8/1 and 12/1 I like this pair. Horschel is a two-time course winner and was fourth (just two behind the winners) with Burns when they joined forces last year. In the Par Breaker stats, Burns is 7th and Horschel 21st.
Tips 1-2; -1.60pts
