I truly could not think of better timing for the PGA Tour's lone team event in the season to be occurring amidst rumors of the downfall of LIV Golf.
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans, an innovator in walk-up songs for golfers, will be on our TV screens between the NBA and NHL Playoffs. The Zurich always ends up being a birdie-fest, with last year's winning score from Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak coming in at a cool 28-under. We should be in for more of the same this year, so if that's not your speed, then maybe you can watch the Bruins blow another playoff game instead.
We're riding another winning streak in the rankings here, with Matt Fitzpatrick taking down Scottie Scheffler in the playoff at Harbour Town. For longtime readers, this is the stretch of the season where we really started to catch fire, so let's try to do it again this season.
Honorable Mentions: Frankie Capan III/Noah Goodwin, Jesper Svensson/Pontus Nyholm,
Matt McCarty/Mac Meissner
9. Blades Brown/Luke Clanton
The Zurich Classic always comes down to being able to make birdies, and Blades Brown knows how to fill up the cup. The 18-year-old (that hurts my brain every time I think about it) has been finding success on the Korn Ferry Tour this year, with a solo second last week in Mexico.
Luke Clanton's transition to full-time professional status has not gone well, aside from a T5 finish in Puerto Rico. Hopefully, Brown serves as a comfy pairing for the Florida State alum, and the two young guns can bring some firepower to the leaderboard.
8. Aaron Rai/Sahith Theegala
Rai and Theegala are running back their partnership from last season, where they put up a respectable T18 finish. Interestingly, they have kind of flipped form from where they were last year for this week's playing.
Aaron Rai hasn't quite been able to reach the same heights that he was able to last season with his play, while Sahith Theegala has started to become a consistent fixture on leaderboards once again. Given the two's experience as a duo, I wouldn't be surprised to see them improve on last year's showing.
7. Karl Vilips/Michael Thorbjornsen
Another returning team from last season, Karl Vilips and Michael Thorbjornsen, made a run on the weekend last season, ultimately finishing T4. This season, I would say that Vilips' performance has maintained from how it was last season at this time, and Thor's performance has improved from last year.
We've seen both of these young guys continue to grow more accustomed to PGA Tour life and playing late on Sundays, and I think there'll be a late Sunday tee time coming their way this weekend.
6. Marco Penge/Matt Wallace
I'm highlighting this duo of Brits because they have perfectly complementary games to one another. Marco Penge can absolutely mash the golf ball off the tee and get the putter rolling, while Matt Wallace makes his bread through strong iron and wedge play.
These two should excel in the alternate-shot format together and have a high enough floor that they'll still perform well in the fourball rounds.
5. Ben Griffin/Andrew Novak
The defending champions were always going to make their way onto these rankings, it just helps that we're finally starting to see flashes of form from them. The year of Ben Griffin hasn't quite translated into 2026, but he's finally strung a few okay finishes in a row, so maybe we can start seeing some peak finishes and get another summer of Benny Booms.
Andrew Novak, in the meantime, is starting to get those high-ceiling finishes again, with two top-16 finishes in his last three starts. These guys obviously love playing with each other, so why not use one another to find that mojo again?
4. Ryan Gerard/Sudarshan Yellamaraju
Originally Ryan Gerard was going to be playing with David Ford, but after Ford WD'ed, Gerard ended up with a much more exciting partner in Sudarshan Yellamaraju. Gerard hasn't returned to his early season form, but the good news is that the putting stats are still overwhelmingly positive in comparison to last season, so I'm willing to wait out the rest of his game catching back up to him.
I wrote about Yellamaraju a few weeks back, and even though last week wasn't the best for him, I still have faith in his skill. This is the "trust the process" group, so let's hope it works out.
3. Brooks Koepka/Shane Lowry
Easily the most star power of any of the duos this week, Shane Lowry swaps out his normal major champion partner in Rory McIlroy for another major champion in Brooks Koepka. We haven't seen Koepka at the Zurich since 2019, and maybe he'll enjoy some freedom by not having to drag around dead weight Chase Koepka this week.
The two stars should be able to lean on each other this week, and maybe not having to shoulder the full weight of climbing a leaderboard individually could help both of them find their first wins on Tour in a long time.
2. Michael Brennan/Johnny Keefer
I'll admit, this one is a real closed eyes throw at the dartboard, and hope we hit a bullseye. Both of these guys haven't shown the consistent high finishes that I think a lot of people expected from both of them coming into this season, but the Zurich can be a strange event that can see two guys that are not in form join forces and shock the world.
Both Brennan and Keefer have strong skills on their own, so maybe they can align their chakras or whatever they need to do to surprise everyone this week.
1. Matt Fitzpatrick/Alex Fitzpatrick
Topping the list this week, we have the rare duo that are both coming off of wins in their last starts. I talked about Matt last week with the Heritage rankings, so let's talk about Alex a bit this week.
Alex Fitzpatrick is having a banner year over on the DP World Tour, with six top-25 finishes in seven starts this year, including a win in his most recent start at the beautifully deranged DLF Golf & Country Club in the Indian Open. The Fitzpatricks have never been this aligned in high-level play going into the Zurich before, so no reason the hot form should stop for either one of the lads.
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