Zurich Classic Picks & Best Bets: These 3 Teams Have Value at TPC Louisiana
Patrick Smith/Getty Images. Pictured: Harold Varner III.
Stewart Cink turned the weekend at Harbour Town into a coronation ceremony. He didn't really have a misstep for four days at the RBC Heritage on his way to a fairly comfortable victory.
This week, the TOUR heads to Louisiana for the Zurich Classic, the lone team event on the schedule. The format will see 80 duos play a round of best ball and alternate shot before the field is cut to 35. Another round of best ball awaits on Saturday before the event comes to a close with a final round of alternate shot.
The Course
TPC Louisiana is a 7,425 yard par 72 where par-4 scoring and approach play tend to be among the most important stats.
Over the years, a variety of players have won on this course, from bombers like Bubba Watson to short hitters like Jason Bohn and Jerry Kelly. The first tandem to win here was Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt, relying on their short games, before a ball-striking duo in Scott Piercy and Billy Horschel won. In 2019, Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer took the title home.
In other words, any type of style can succeed at TPC Louisiana, and that adds to the difficulty of finding a winner.
The Favorites
The defending champs Rahm and Palmer opened as a slight favorite at +600 on DraftKings over the team of Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay, who are +650.
The Aussie duo of Marc Leishman and former winner Smith are next in line at +1400. Collin Morikawa and Matthew Wolff are also +1400 in their debut at the event.
Scottie Scheffler and Bubba Watson check in at +1600 and the bombing duo of Tony Finau and Cameron Champ close out this range at +1800.
I'm steering clear of the top of the board, but Scheffler and Bubba would probably draw the most interest from me. Watson has a win on this course back when it was just a regular stroke play event and Scheffler has been in some solid form for over the past few months.
The Mid-Tier
It'll be a pretty limited card for this event, but I will start out here in this range with Branden Grace and Harold Varner III at +3500 on DraftKings. Varner was great last week at Harbour Town, finishing second behind the buzzsaw Cink. Grace has also been playing well for sometime, dating back to his win in Puerto Rico.
Next up, I'll go with Cameron Tringale and Roberto Castro at +5500 at FanDuel. Last time this event was held, we got this team at 200/1 and they came in fifth. So I'll circle back one more even with the big price drop. Tringale has been in great form as well with five top 20s in his last eight starts. Castro has played a limited schedule of late but made the cut in both alternate field events in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The Longshots
I'll take one stab down here with Chase Seiffert and Matthew NeSmith at 100/1 on FanDuel. Both are solid iron players who usually keep the ball in play, which will hopefully help them during the alternate shot portion of the contest. Neither has posted a super high finish lately, but they've been stringing cuts together pretty well. Seiffert has made the weekend in five straight starts, while NeSmith has made seven of nine cuts over the past few months.
Again, light card this week with the unusual format. Without the normal strokes gained data and variation of rules from day to day, it'll make adding anything during the event even more of a crapshoot than normal.
The Zurich Classic Card
- Grace/Varner +3500 (.94 units)
- Tringale/Castro +5500 (.6 units)
- Seiffert/NeSmith +10000 (.33 units)
Total Stake: 1.93 units
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