Who Thrived and Who Suffered Because of Their Zurich Classic Partnership?
By Bill Felber
The ideal 50-50 Partnership
Of the 12 teams placing among the top 10 and ties at the Zurich Classic, only three split their points on the basis of 55-45 or more evenly. One, though, actually did achieve a perfect 50-50 partnership.
That ideal partnership belonged to Sam Burns and Billy Horschel, the runners-up to Schauffele and Cantlay. Each partner produced -13.5 points on their way to a collective -27.
Horschel was the better player Thursday and Friday, responsible for -8.1 of the team’s collective -15 to that point. After an even Saturday, Burns took over on Sunday, responsible for -2.6 of the total -4.0 produced by the partnership.
The victors, Cantlay and Schauffele, also performed within the reasonable boundaries of a partnership. Cantlay had somewhat the better of it, his playing translating to -15.8 of the team’s -29. That equated to 54.5 percent of the partnership points. Schauffele, -13.2, produced the remaining 45.5 percent.
The third balanced team, Cameron Tringale and Wyndham Clark, tied for 10th at the Zurich Classic at 22-under. Tringale was responsible for -11.4 of that -22; that’s 51.8 percent. Clark’s -10.6 works out to 48.1 percent.
Those three partnerships were, however, the exceptions. Among the 12 teams comprising the top 10 at the Zurich Classic, the average contribution of the more productive member of the partnership topped 60 percent of the team’s total. That means the typical split of successful teams at TPC Louisiana was 60-40.