Who Thrived and Who Suffered Because of Their Zurich Classic Partnership?

Who played the best?

On the official scoreboard, Schauffele and Cantlay shared the trophy and first-place check. But when all the birdies, eagles, and bogeys are re-credited to the guys who actually were responsible for them, the order of finish looks a lot different. Here’s a list you’ll never see; the Zurich Classic top 10 if the event were played in an individual, rather than a partnership, format. Their partners of the 10 leaders — along with the team’s actual finish– are both indicated in parenthesis

Player (Partner)                                                               Score

1              Bubba Watson  (Harold Varner III, T4)        -17.0

2              Dylan Wu (Justin Lower, T10)                        -16.3

3              Patrick Cantlay  (Xander Schauffele, 1)      -15.8

4              Keegan Bradley (Brendan Steele, T4)         -14.6

4              Taylor Moore (Matthew NeSmith, T4)         -14.6

6              Garrick Higgo (Branden Grace, T4)               -14.3

7              Doc Redman (Sam Ryder, 3)                          -13.8

8              Will Zalatoris (Davis Riley, T4)                       -13.6

9              David Lipsky  (Aaron Rai, T4)                          -13.6

10           Sam Burns (Billy Horschel, 2)                         -13.5

10           Billy Horschel (Sam Burns, 2)                         -13.5

Only the Burns-Horschel team shared tenancy among the top 10 individual players. Almost all the other top individual players, to a greater or lesser extent, carried their partners or – if you prefer – were held back by them.

When you begin to translate these results into dollar-and-cents terms, the difference between a functioning and non-functioning partnership becomes clearer.

By joining a six-way tie for fourth, the partnership of Watson and Varner should expect to pick up about $200,000 each. But based on how he played, if Watson had only found a more productive partner he might easily have won the event and claimed a winner’s check that will likely surpass $1.2 million when the final accounting is made.

The same can be said for Wu, who would have contended for a breakthrough win either with a better partner or a standard event format. As it is, he and Lower tied for 10th, probably earning them around $100,000.