This week the PGA Tour heads to New Orleans for the Zurich Classic, a unique teams event at TPC Louisiana. This is a week I personally take off, but I still break down the tournament!

Course Breakdown

Par 72, 7425 yards, Pete Dye design, all four Par 3s are between 200-225 yards, all four of the Par 5s should be reachable in two by most of the field, fairways are above average width, many of the fairways are tree lined, lots of bunkers in an array of sizes, rough is thick but not too penalizing, water in play on eight holes, lower than tour average driving distance (277 vs. 284 yards), Bermuda greens that are some of the easiest on tour with the highest three putt avoidance and make rate from 5-10 feet on any course on tour when this was a normal stroke play event, this was one of the easiest stroke play courses on tour before it became a team competition

Tournament Notes

• Only team stroke play format event of the year since it became that format in 2017
• This event (not as a team event before 2017) has been held here every year since 2005 (besides 2006 because of Hurricane Katrina)
• In 2018, the format switched to four ball for the Thursday and Saturday rounds and alternate shot for the Friday and Sunday rounds.
• Cut is Top 33 teams and ties
• Teams that have had the best success here are the teams that have done best in the alternate shot format
• The format of this tournament makes the strokes gained data for this event useless

Key Stats

Approach, Par 4 scoring, Putting (typically not as much of a factor)

Main proximity distance range on approach: 200+ yards (29.2%)

Field

80 two player teams with lousy field strength besides a few stud teams at the top

Defending Champions: Rory McIlroy & Shane Lowry (-25 in a playoff)

Runner Ups Last Year: Chad Ramey & Martin Trainer (-25)

DraftKings/Betting Notes

• Every player will be listed individually on DraftKings, not as a team BUT you can only play one player per team (for example, you can’t draft both Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm) BUT you get the points for both regardless of which you roster so there’s no advantage of one partner over another. They’re the same and the same price.
• Most One & Done contests skip this week including the big Mayo Cup one that I’m in, but if your league/contest is running one this week, pick a player that is paired with a stud that you typically wouldn’t use (for example, Kitayama since he is paired with Morikawa)
• On DraftKings, both of the guys on the same team are the same price and get the same scoring for that team, so it doesn’t matter who you play out of the two of them (for example, there’s zero difference between using Rory or Lowry), but you can only put one of them in the lineup – not sure why they don’t just combine them into a team like they have listed
• As I do most years, I’m taking this week off as a much needed PGA Tour bye week from both gambling and DFS. I considered throwing in a DFS lineup, but even that isn’t worth it.
• I considered betting Rory and Lowry since they’re the defending champs and two of the three best three golfers in the field, but at +350, I don’t think they’re worth it in an event with so much variability, especially with Rory coming off his Grand Slam win at The Masters

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