Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland can team up to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans according to Ben Coley, who goes for back-to-back winners in the pairs event.
Golf betting tips: Zurich Classic of New Orleans
5pts win Collin Morikawa & Viktor Hovland at 17/2 (bet365, William Hill)
1.5pts e.w. Patton Kizzire & JT Poston at 40/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Adam Hadwin & Adam Svensson at 50/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Martin Laird & Robert MacIntyre at 55/1 (William Hill, Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
1pt e.w. Troy Merritt & Robert Streb at 66/1 (William Hill 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is one of those PGA Tour events which has found precisely the right slot, much like last week's post-Masters comedown at Harbour Town. Here, following a switch to the current pairs format in 2017, we have the opportunity to draw a line under the first phase of the season and pause before preparing for what's to come: a short build-up to the PGA, then the US Open, the Open Championship, the FedEx Cup, and Robert Garrigus v Todger Strunk for the LIV Golf millions.
Played at TPC Louisiana, a Pete Dye design which isn't among his most famous but nevertheless boasts an exciting finish, this is a fun tournament that affords players the rare opportunity to team up. Some choose to do so with friends or college roommates, others with compatriots, some with whoever they can get, and after a small tweak to the format they can ease into action in Thursday's fourballs, where a score in the low sixties will be required. After that comes Friday's foursomes, where breaking 70 means making serious ground.
The top 33 teams will advance to the weekend to repeat the formula and while world ranking points are not among the rewards, winners do get their share of FedEx Cup points and a two-year exemption plus invites to events like the 2023 PLAYERS, the Sentry Tournament of Champions, and more immediately next month's US PGA at Southern Hills should they still need one.
Cameron Smith teamed up with Marc Leishman to win last year's renewal and he's a good example of how important this week can be. Smith would not otherwise have qualified for the Tournament of Champions which he went on to win, that experience surely helping him towards a career-best victory at Sawgrass, before he played in the final group of the Masters. To some extent, a fun week with his Aussie pal contributed to all the success he's subsequently enjoyed.
Those two were pretty obvious champions, just as we'd had in the previous two renewals to varying degrees. For all the relaxed atmosphere down in New Orleans, Smith is the only one of eight winning players who was making his PGA Tour breakthrough. Most teams boasted at least one top-notch putter. But above all else, the players involved arrived in good form, in Smith and Leishman's case both having been inside the top 10 at Augusta earlier in the month.
This theme covers Smith's first win with Blixt, the former having been sixth a week earlier, and many of the surprise packages who've finished in the frame. Brice Garnett had won just a month earlier and his partner Chesson Hadley was playing some of the best golf of his life before they went close in 2018. In 2019, KH Lee was in good nick and so too was wild partner Matt Every. Last year, third place went to Richy Werenski and Peter Uihlein, the latter having won just days before.
With just 80 teams including some carrying an unbearably heavy load, I think this is a pretty good event for a bet. My shortlist was exactly that – short – and of the three high-class pairings who feature on it, I can't resist keeping it simple with COLLIN MORIKAWA and VIKTOR HOVLAND.
These two made their debuts last year and were always up against it, Hovland playing with Kristoffer Ventura and Morikawa with Matthew Wolff. Hovland nevertheless shared the lead after rounds one and two and sat seventh through 54 holes, before a chastening foursomes finale saw Team Norway fall down to 25th.
Morikawa on the other hand was exposed by a badly out of sorts Wolff, who was making what would be his last appearance before stepping away from the game until summer. Glancing back through the shot-by-shot data, it's plain to see that Wolff's waywardness cost them a weekend tee-time, and that Morikawa produced plenty of good golf on his first look at TPC Louisiana.
Now together, two of the very best ball-strikers in the sport could be a deadly combination. Morikawa arrives buoyed by a strong Masters finish and then last week's 26th at Harbour Town, where he hit the ball as well as he has in almost a year. His approach play was back at the highest level for the first time all season, taking another step forward having ranked eighth at Augusta, and only a bad week on and around the greens kept him from contending.
Hovland meanwhile did everything well at Augusta bar his work around the greens, which is always a concern. His long-game remains in excellent shape and while there might be a small worry as to what happens when these two do miss a green, Hovland will have to play fewer such shots than an ordinary tournament and that has to be of benefit to their chances.
Ultimately they're the class acts here, and there are one or two concerns with their main rivals. Smith for instance suffered a Masters hangover last week and Leishman isn't in the best of form. Patrick Cantlay has to bounce back from his second play-off defeat of 2022 and his partner, Xander Schauffele, has disappointed the last twice. Scottie Scheffler will be making his first appearance as a major champion and it's difficult to know exactly what to expect alongside former winner and Zurich Classic opportunist, Ryan Palmer.
That leaves Sam Burns and Billy Horschel as rock-solid alternatives and possibly even the biggest threat at 12/1, but at just a few points shorter I much prefer arguably the strongest line-up this event has so far seen. With both players having picked up valuable foursomes experience in the Ryder Cup before squaring off in the singles, they could take a fair bit of beating.
Shane Lowry and Ian Poulter are the third prominent duo who came under strong consideration. Typically, quality approach play has been vital at this course and few if any of the game's elite are hitting their irons as well as Lowry is right now. The Irishman could and probably should have won twice already in 2022 and if he can dust himself down following Sunday's disappointment, he and Poulter ought to go well.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans
- Two rounds of foursomes and two rounds of four-balls between two-man teams
- 80 teams, but only the best 33 (and ties) advance to the weekend after Friday's cut
- Thursday and Saturday's rounds are four-balls, i.e. each player plays every hole with their own ball, and the best score of the two counts
- Friday and Sunday are foursomes, which means they take alternate shots until the ball is holed
- No world ranking points are awarded but winners receive exemptions into next month’s PGA Championship, the 2023 Sentry Tournament of Champions, the 2023 PLAYERS Championship, as well as a two-year winner's exemption on the PGA Tour
That, though, is a big 'if', and I wonder if Lowry might struggle a little bit. As such I'll move onto a clutch of each-way options, starting with PATTON KIZZIRE and JT POSTON.
These two Sea Islanders know each other well and they've some decent experience here. Poston finished 22nd with Stephan Jaeger in 2019 and made the cut with Dominic Bozzelli in 2017, and there's absolutely no denying that Kizzire represents an upgrade on both.
Kizzire meanwhile finished fifth with Jason Dufner in 2017 and that came after he'd been eighth as an individual in the 2016 edition, where his dynamite short-game was key. That's a strength both players share – at their best there might not be a better putting duo in the event – while Kizzire's approach play, which sees him rank 40th this season, is back at the levels which took him to a pair of PGA Tour wins during the 2017-2018 campaign.
Poston hasn't quite kicked on since going bogey-free to take the 2019 Wyndham Championship but his accuracy helped him to third place at the RBC Heritage last week to tick that recent form box, and all of his best form has been in the southern states. Now teaming up with a proven pairs performer in Kizzire, who won the QBE Shootout a couple of years ago, he can play his part in a team with the potential to threaten 59 in the fourballs.
Keegan Bradley and Brendan Steele have also won the QBE Shootout together, albeit way back in 2011, and these two similar types were fourth when reunited last year. Both having showed some good form of late, they look prime candidates to set up the required opportunities, though whether they can take them in a tournament which typically requires at least one dynamite putter is open to debate.
That might also be a question mark with ADAM HADWIN and ADAM SVENSSON, but the former is certainly capable of lighting up the greens and they look worth chancing.
Hadwin was 13th with Jim Knous on his last appearance here back in 2019, a partner who was out of form and outside the world's top 500. It was a highly encouraging effort and so was his share of 36th in the last individual renewal, when strong ball-striking was let down by a poor week on the greens.
That's been the case again recently, but he putted well at Sawgrass for some correlating Pete Dye form, and has been a persistent threat all spring. Hadwin has seven top-30 finishes in nine starts this year, gaining strokes with his approaches in eight of those nine, and three times he's ranked inside the top 10 in strokes-gained tee-to-green.
Svensson missed the cut with a similarly out-of-sorts Ollie Schniederjans three years ago but returns a better player, with top-10 finishes in the Sony Open and at the Honda Classic plus several other encouraging efforts. His approach play is a strength when on-song (46th) and we saw that again last week, ranking ninth, so here we have two pretty similar players who know each other well, both arriving in good shape.
With Hadwin very much back to his best, he'll have eyes on a Presidents Cup return later in the year and having seen teams from Australia and South Africa play-off for the title in 2021, this Canadian duo might also be able to demonstrate their team credentials.
At a slightly bigger price I also like the Scottish duo, MARTIN LAIRD and ROBERT MACINTYRE, both of whom are explosive players whose skills should marry up nicely.
Laird has top-10 finishes here with Russell Knox and Nick Taylor, and his iron play in particular has been a real strength this season. He ranks 22nd in strokes-gained approach and 50th off-the-tee so his long-game has been excellent, as was again the case when 29th in Texas last time out.
His form figures might not leap off the page but he's certainly hit the ball well enough and there have been flashes of good putting, too. A former runner-up at Sawgrass, he has some nice correlating form and it's clear this format has brought out the best in him, so from 127th in the FedEx Cup he'll see this is an opportunity to get the right side of the line.
As for MacIntyre, he's played nicely wherever he's gone this year, finishing 15th at Riviera, 35th in Texas and 23rd in the Masters, all without full PGA Tour status. He can gain it by winning this and as a hyper-aggressive player who stacks up birdies that's not beyond the realms of possibility as he tries everything to secure the membership which proved just beyond his reach last autumn.
At big odds, Hank Lebioda and Chase Seiffert are a Floridian duo capable of making the weekend but the last names off the list were those of Cameron Tringale and Wyndham Clark. The former absolutely loves it here, played well last week, and finished tied fifth with Roberto Castro back in 2019 when sent off around the 150/1 mark.
Clark meanwhile played better in the Heritage and both are highly capable on the greens when at their best, with Tringale's all-round game and Clark's power potentially a dangerous combination. That said, both remain maidens and I'm inclined to chance the less flashy but very capable TROY MERRIT and ROBERT STREB.
Streb finished runner-up here in 2014 and Merritt was third in 2010, so they've course form as individuals while as a pair, they've made the cut in two of their three appearances. Merritt was also 10th in 2018 when playing with Brendon de Jonge, then ranked outside the world's top 1500 players, so he's punched above his weight at TPC Louisiana more than once.
Both arrive in good form, Streb having been seventh three starts back and played well to a point last week, his approach play in particular firing, and Merritt having contended a few times this year including when fourth and 12th on his last two starts. His putter is purring and together these two longtime friends can overcome a lack of power at a course they plainly enjoy.
Posted at 1125 BST on 19/04/22
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