Well, at least Scottie Scheffler won’t be winning this week.
After back-to-back victories in The Masters and the RBC Heritage, the World No.1 gives the rest a chance by sitting out this year’s annual pairs event at TPC Louisiana.
The 160 players on site split into 80 teams of two and, over the standard Thursday to Sunday format, play fourballs in rounds one and three and foursomes in rounds two and four. You might hear those referred to as better-ball and alternate shot.
The cut comes after two rounds with the low 33 teams and ties making it through.
TPC Louisiana is a Pete Dye track with a par of 72. It measures 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 birdies have continued to flow and last year Davis Riley and Nick Hardy broke the 72-hole tournament record by shooting -30.
Angles to consider
1/ Course/format form
While Riley and Hardy were surprise winners on the face of it, both had played well here before with different partners. Riley had finished fourth a year earlier with Will Zalatoris. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele were the winners in 2022 and put up a bold defence last year when taking fourth. Go back a bit further and Billy Horschel has won this both as a 72-hole strokeplay event and in its newer pairs format.
2/ Pete Dye form
One other clue from last year is that Hardy had a good record on Pete Dye courses with three previous top 10s on the iconic architect’s layouts. Cantlay certainly loves a Pete Dye layout and showed it again with third at the RBC Heritage last week. Cam Davis has won here twice and also triumphed on Dye’s most famous layout, TPC Sawgrass.
3/ Putting
There are no stats kept under the current format but in its days as a strokeplay tournament, Putting Average was a great pointer at TPC Louisiana. It makes sense given that this is a birdie-fest and you have to keep knocking them in to keep up.
Selections
The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players are selected.
Nick Taylor/Adam Hadwin
The Canadian duo shot 28-under together last year to finish second and their 63 in the Sunday foursomes matched the tournament best in that format. Clearly they can thrive on this course. Taylor is a winner in Phoenix this year and ranks 19th for Strokes Gained: Putting this season. Hadwin has three top sixes in 2024, the first of those secured on a Pete Dye layout at The American Express where his record is superb.
Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy
Hoge keeps racking up the top 20s and added another at Dye’s Harbour Town last week. He’s also a former winner of another pairs event, the QBE Shootout, alongside Sahith Theegala in 2022. He’s finished 10th and 13th here before. Both players have also shown strong form on Dye’s TPC Sawgrass, with Hoge third there in 2023 and McNealy ninth last month. You’ll find them at 30th (Hoge) and 32nd (McNealy) in the SG: Putting charts.
Davis Riley/Nick Hardy
Sticking with course/format form, the defending champions have to be respected but their odds suggest they’re being overlooked a little. Holes can be picked in their overall form but the duo were 14th and 25th respectively in their penultimate PGA Tour starts. Riley was 11th for Putting Average when 14th in Houston and back at the scene of last year’s win they can find the magic formula again.
Tips 0-3; -6.00pts
1pt e.w. Nick Taylor/Adam Hadwin at 28/1 (888 Sport 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 10th
1.25pts e.w. Tom Hoge/Maverick McNealy at 25/1 (General 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) mc
0.75pts e.w. Davis Riley/Nick Hardy at 50/1 (William Hill 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) 28th
