Zurich Classic: 2021 Tournament preview and picks

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans welcomes back the PGA Tour this week for one of the more unique events on the PGA calendar.

This week sees the return of the Zurich Classic and its unique team-event competition that was first introduced back in 2017 in an attempt to give some variance to the PGA schedule. The change worked, and since its introduction in 2017 has provided golf fans with some exhilarating finishes in an event that sees some of the best players on tour team up over the course of four days.

The event that is held at TPC Louisiana was another to fall victim to the COVID-19 pandemic pause, and as such was not held in 2020. The tournament will see 80 teams of golfers compete in both best ball format (Thursday-Saturday), and alternate shot format (Friday-Sunday) across the opening two days with the top-35 and ties moving onto the weekend.

More from Pro Golf Now

Tournament rules were adjusted after the inaugural event in 2017 that saw foursomes played on days one and three, and best ball on days two and four. The change that swapped formats across the four days was widely thought to have led to more compelling finishes with the more difficult foursomes format taking place on Friday and Sunday now instead of during the opening round and moving day as it had done previously.

The field for the Zurich Classic includes five of the World’s top ten golfers per the Official World Golf Ranking and is headlined by 2019 Champions Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer as they look to hang onto the title they won two years ago.

Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC Louisana

Located roughly 15 minutes from downtown New Orleans, TPC Louisana is another Pete Dye design that has hosted the Zurich Classic since 2006.

TPC Louisiana is a PAR 72 design that play’s at right around 7,400 yards. The course was designed by famed architect Pete Dye who brought along PGA pro’s Steve Elkington and Kelly Gibson as player consultants. It features a wide range of scoring holes with numerous short PAR 4’s and four PAR 5’s that make it a perfect host for a team event such as this.

The course also boasts everything from tree-lined fairways featuring cypress and oak trees, to miles of wetlands, numerous water hazards including on the finishing 18th hole, and over 100 bunkers throughout. Players will also see re-vamped fairways and TifEagle Bermuda grass greens this week for the first time after changes were conducted following the 2019 event.

Past Zurich Classic Team-Event Champions

2019: Jon Rahm/Ryan Palmer (-26)

2018: Billy Horschel/Scott Piercy (-22)

2017: Jonas Blixt/Cameron Smith (-27)

The Favorites at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans

The odds used in this article can be found online at Draftkings sportsbook and are current at the time of the article. Make sure to check what is available locally to you for the best and updated odds.

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images) /

Defending Zurich Classic Champions Jon Rahm/Ryan Palmer +600 open as favorites this week with the team of Xander Schauffele/Patrick Cantlay +650 right behind them at the top of the board.

Team’s Cameron Smith/Marc Leishman +1400, Collin Morikawa/Matthew Wolf +1400, Bubba Watson/Scottie Scheffler +1600, and Tony Finau/Cameron Champ +1800 close out the top-tier this week.

All but one of the six teams listed above will be making their partnership debut this week for the Zurich Classic. Team Rahm/Palmer are hard to overlook as they have excelled as a duo and are the only team in the upper-tier to have teamed up at this event previously.

Schauffele/Cantlay have prior experience of working together as they teamed up during the 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia. The all Aussie team of Smith/Leishman is intriguing this week as both have games that should complement one another and both have been playing well in recent starts. Cameron has won this event already under the team format with Jonas Blixt in 2017 as well.

The Mid-Tier this week begins with the team of Billy Horschel/Sam Burns +2500 and is where the card will begin this week. Horschel is the only player in the field to have won the Zurich Classic as both an individual when it was contested as a normal stroke play event (2013), and as part of a team when he won with Scott Piercy in 2018.

The two will be making their team debut together this week and while Burns has not been in the best of form since he contended at the Genesis Invitational earlier this year, he will be very familiar with golf in Louisiana after playing his collegiate golf at Louisiana State University.

Both have skillsets that should complement each other well this week with Burns’s excellent driving and ball striking, and Horschel’s superb iron play and short game.

The South African team of Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel +2800 looks to be an interesting option this week with both having prior experience of playing this event together back in 2019. The team sticks out this week in a Mid-Tier that also includes the debutant team of Viktor Hovland/Kristoffer Ventura +4500, as well as the reunited pair of Ryder Cup teammates in Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson +4500.

It’s the team of Norway and Oklahoma State University duo Hovland/Ventura +4500 that will go on the card next. The pair will be making their PGA team debut this week, though both should be comfortable playing together as a result of their collegiate playing days. A blend of Ventura’s driving and putting mixed with Hovland’s elite ball-striking could prove to be a recipe for success this week.

Viktor ranks 3rd in the field across his past twenty-four rounds in the ball striking department and after several sluggish starts at recent events looked to have turned a corner following an excellent debut performance at the Masters.

After taking two teams making their “debut” together this week I’ll finish the card for the week with two more who have a bit more history together on their side. First-up the team of Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown +6600 will be the next pick for the week at a pretty fair price when considering the history the two have at the event.

The pick does carry some risk after Kisner struggled last week at a course he loves in Harbour Town. More concern lies with the fact that Kevin, who has always been an excellent putter decided to make a change in that department prior to last week’s event and then subsequently went on to miss the cut.

The duo doesn’t bring great form in with them this week, but the history the two have since this event became a team event is hard to ignore. The pair’s worst finish at the Zurich Classic was a 15th place finish back in 2018, this coming a year after the two lost in a playoff to eventual champions Cam Smith and Jonas Blixt. They finished T5 here when the tournament was last played in 2019.

Another team that has a nice track record at this event will be the final pick for this week and it comes at longer odds in the form of David Hearn/Seamus Power +15000. The duo teamed up prior to the 2018 Zurich Classic when they went on to finish T10 in their first start together. They would go one better the very next year when they finished with a T5. There is not a lot to look at individually but somehow when the two have teamed up they have done well at this event, and at the odds, they are definitely worth a shot this week.

Next. 2021 RBC Heritage: Can Stewart Cink Make Run at FedEx Cup?. dark

The card finishes a bit lighter than normal this week at an event that has seen a high degree of variance amongst teams that have won over the first three years since the format was first introduced.

Zurich Classic of Louisiana Card

Billy Horschel/Sam Burns +2500

Viktor Hovland/Kristoffer Ventura +4500

Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown +6600

David Hearn/Seamus Power +15000

Home/Golf News