Zurich Classic

PGA Tour: Zurich Classic Preview

April 23, 2025 by PGA Tour Brunch

The Zurich Classic | Tournament Preview

NEW ORLEANS – This is the eighth year the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will be played in a two-man team format, which was introduced in 2017 (postponed in 2020 due to COVID-19). Teams will play Four-ball in the first and third rounds, and Foursomes (alternate shot) in the second and final rounds.

Each player on the winning team will receive 400 FedExCup points, $1,329,400, a two-year exemption on the PGA TOUR (through 2027) and entry into the three remaining Signature Events.

This week’s field is highlighted by six players inside the Top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking, including two of the top five (No. 2/Rory McIlroy, No. 4/Collin Morikawa).

Some tournament notes:

Teams in the field that have won this tourney beforehand: Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry (2024), Nick Hardy and Davis Riley (2023)
Players who won with different partners: Billy Horschel (2018 with Scott Piercy) and Ryan Palmer (2019 with LIVs Jon Rahm)
Players who won in the individual format: Nick Watney (2007), Jason Dufner (2012), Billy Horschel (2013). Horschel is the only player who has won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans both in the individual and team format (2013, 2018)
Seven teams that finished inside the Top 10 in 2024 are paired together in 2025: Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry (Won), Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard (3rd), Garrick Higgo and Ryan Fox (T4), Zac Blair and Patrick Fishburn (T4), Max Greyserman and Nico Echavarria (T4), Thomas Detry and Robert MacIntyre
(T8), Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin (10th)
Charley Hoffman and Nick Watney are the only pair to compete together in all seven previous editions of the team format. The duo has two Top-10s together, including a T5 in 2017.

Zurich Classic | Tournament Facts

COURSE: TPC Louisiana, Avondale, LA

ARCHITECT: Pete Dye

YARDS/PAR: 7,425 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $9,200,000/$1,329,400

DEFENDING CHAMPIONS: Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy

OVERVIEW: (link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points to Winners: 400 to each player

Irish Eyes Are a Smilin’ in NOLA

April 28, 2024 by PGA Tour Brunch

NEW ORLEANS – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Irish eyes smiled upon TPC Louisiana this weekend as Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry prevailed in a playoff to win the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in McIlroy’s debut at the team tournament in Louisiana.

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McIlroy, the four-time major champ from Northern Ireland, and Lowry, his Irish friend, fellow major winner and onetime Ryder Cup teammate, put the Zurich on their schedule hoping to jump up the FedEx Cup standings. They’ll each receive 400 FedEx Cup points after defeating Chad Ramey and France’s Martin Trainer on the first playoff hole.

After starting the day seven shots off the lead, Ramey and Trainer fired a 9-under 63 in Sunday’s round of foursomes (alternate shot) to head to the clubhouse at 25-under 263. Other teams in the 25-under range soon wobbled and fell back — including McIlroy and Lowry, for a brief time, before they rebounded from a bogey at No. 17 with a birdie at the par-5 18th hole to force the playoff.

They returned to the 18th tee to begin the playoff, and Ramey’s second shot hooked left over the gallery. Trainer couldn’t hit his third shot hard enough onto the green. Meanwhile, Lowry put his team in the bunker on the second shot but McIlroy made a nice recovery shot — similar to his pitch shot on the 72nd hole to set up Lowry’s 5-foot birdie that forced the playoff.

Lowry’s birdie try in the playoff came to rest inches right of the cup, but Trainer pushed his short par putt that would have extended the playoff.

It marked McIlroy’s 25th PGA Tour win and Lowry’s third. Lowry had not won on U.S. soil since August 2015.

Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard shot a 69 and finished one shot out of the playoff after finishing with four straight pars. Brehm missed a must-have birdie at No. 18.

–Field Level Media

PGA Tour: Preview of the Zurich Classic

April 19, 2023 by PGA Tour Brunch

NEW ORLEANS – This is the sixth year that the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will be played with the two-man team format, the concept introduced in 2017 but interrupted/canceled in 2020 during pandemic. The tournament format calls for teams of two PGA Tour pros to play Four-ball in the first and third rounds, and Foursomes in the second and final rounds.

Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay will defend their title after winning in wire-to-wire fashion in 2022.

Five of the top six players on the final leaderboard at last week’s RBC Heritage are in the this week’s field, including RBC champion Matt Fitzpatrick, who is competing with his brother, Alex. The younger Fitzpatrick is making his second career start on Tour and first since the 2022 Valspar Championship (MC). The defending champions finished third (Cantlay) and fourth (Schauffele), while the two players that tied for fifth are also making the trip to New Orleans: Hayden Buckley is paired with 2022 Valero Texas Open champion J.J. Spaun and Sahith Theegala is teaming up with 2022 Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Justin Suh.

Wire-To-Wire at NOLA

April 24, 2022 by PGA Tour Brunch

NEW ORLEANS – The race went wire-to-wire. Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele won the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with a tournament-record 29-under (259), and became the first team to win the event in wire-to-wire fashion.

Cantlay collected his seventh PGA Tour victory in his 131st start at the age of 30 years, 1 month, 7 days while Schauffele picked up his fifth victory in his 129th Tour starts at the age of 28 years, 5 months, 30 days.

Cantlay became the first player to lose a playoff one week and win a tournament the next since Dustin Johnson (2020).

Billy Horschel and Sam Burns finished runner-up on a Tour event for the ninth and third time, respectively.

Defending champions Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith finished T-21.

Zurich Classic | Final Leaderboard

Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele 59-68-60-72—259 (-29)

Sam Burns/Billy Horschel 62-68-63-68—261 (-27)

Doc Redman/Sam Ryder 61-67-69-67—264 (-24)

Final Leaderboard: (link)

Format: Teams of two players compete in Four-ball (best ball) in first and third rounds, Foursomes (alternate shot) in second and fourth rounds

This Week: Mexico Open at Vidanta

PGA Tour Brunch will post a preview at 12:00pm Noon (ET) on Wednesday.

This Week: Mexico Open at Vidanta (link)

First Look at the Mexico Open (PGATourCom)

PGA Tour: Pros in Pairs at Zurich Classic

April 20, 2022 by PGA Tour Brunch

The Zurich Classic | Tournament Preview

NEW ORLEANS – The Zurich Classic of New Orleans, first played in 1938, has featured its popular two-man team match play format since 2017 and is the only official FedEx Cup event on the PGA Tour schedule that uses a team format.

The field consists of 80 teams (160 players), with each team comprised of two professionals, featuring Four-ball (best ball) during the first and third rounds and Foursomes (alternate shot) during the second and final rounds.

The 2017 Zurich Classic was the first official team event on the PGA Tour since the 1981 Walt Disney World national team championship held at the Magnolia, Palm and Lake Buena Vista courses at Walt Disney World in Florida.

The reigning 2022 PLAYERS Championship winner Cameron Smith and fellow Australian Marc Leishman will return to defend their title. Smith, who won in the inaugural year of the team format (2017) with Jonas Blixt, is the only two-time winner in the team format. Smith leads the Presidents Cup International Team standings, while Leishman is currently No. 12.

Five of the Top-10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking are in the field, but only two of those players are teaming up with world No. 2 Collin Morikawa and partner world No. 5 Viktor Hovland will competing together. They will become the first pair of Top-five players in the OWGR to team up (highest-ranked team since the team format began in 2017, with an average ranking of 3.5).

PGA Tour: Wrap-Up at Zurich Classic

April 25, 2021 by PGA Tour Brunch

PGA Tour Brunch Coverage of Zurich Classic

NEW ORLEANS – Australians Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith defeated 54-hole leaders Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzelof South Africa with a par on the first hole of sudden death playoff to mark the first playoff in the event since 2017 when Smith and Jonas Blixt defeated Scott Brown and Kevin Kisner. With the win, Smith becomes the first player to win the event twice in the team format.

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Partnering together for the first time, the Australian natives overcame a 1-shot deficit beginning the final round to close with a 2-under (70) and then win with a par on the first extra hole, the par-5 18th.

Runner-up Louis Oosthuizen was seeking his second career PGA Tour win more than 10 years after his 2010 The Open Championship title.

Xander Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay combined for eight birdies in the final round to tie the record for most par-breakers in a Foursomes round since the Zurich Classic of New Orleans became a team event in 2017.

Defending champions Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer finished seventh at 17-under (271).

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans switched from individual stroke play to the two-man team format in 2017 and is the only official FedExCup team event on Tour.

Zurich Classic Final Leaderboard

Marc Leishman/Cameron Smith 63-72-63-70—268 (-20)*

Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel 63-71-63-71—268 (-20)

Richy Werenski/Peter Uihlein 65-69-68-67—269 (-19)

Billy Horschel/Sam Burns 63-73-65-69—270 (-18)

Keith Mitchell/Brandt Snedeker 66-71-64-69—270 (-18)

Keegan Bradley/Brendan Steele 63-73-64-70—270 (-18)

*Won with a par on the first extra hole, the par-5 18th

PGA Tour: R-1 Coverage of Zurich Classic

April 22, 2021 by Digital Sports Desk

PGA Tour Brunch 1st Round Coverage of Zurich Classic of New Orleans

The Zurich Classic field consists of five of Top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking: Jon Rahm (3), Collin Morikawa (4), Xander Schauffele (5), Tyrrell Hatton (8), Patrick Cantlay (10).

There are 11 major championsplaying and two teams include two major champions: Justin Rose/Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel

The strong field includes 11 winners from the current 2020-21 season: CollinMorikawa, Patrick Cantlay, Billy Horschel, Max Homa, Joel Dahmen, Branden Grace, Viktor Hovland, Matt Jones, Jason Kokrak, Martin Laird, and Robert Streb

Reminder: This is a two-player “team” event, with each team comprised of two professionals, competing at Four-ball (best ball) during the first and third rounds and Foursomes (alternate shot) during the second and fourth rounds.

The starting field will consist of 80 teams (160 players) with the 36-hole cut to the low 33 teams and ties at the 33rd position.

The Tournament Tee Times begin Thursday at 7:00am (EDT) through 2:10pm (EDT).

Weather: Today’s Forecast calls mild, sunny skies and a temperature of 64-degrees with 49% humidity and 13 mph winds. Zero chance of rain. Friday (70% chance of rain) could bring PM showers and thunderstorms which will hold over until Saturday (90% chance of rain). Sunday will be mostly sunny and 71-degrees.

PGATourBrunch will be posting before 7am (EDT) for early tee times on Friday.

Next Week: Valspar Championship (Palm Harbor, FLA)

Field:

The Field (team player noted in (parenthesis) (link)

THIS WEEK on the PGA TOUR: RBC Heritage

COURSE: TPC Louisiana, Avondale, LA

ARCHITECT: Pete Dye

YARDS/PAR: 7,425 yards/Par 72

PRIZE Money/First Place Winnings: $7,400,000/$1,069,300 (for each winning player)

DEFENDING Champion (April 2019) – Jon Rahm/Ryan Palmer – (Leaderboard link)

PAST RESULTS: (link)

PAST CHAMPIONS: (link)

FEDEx CUP Points Winner Share: 800 per team/400 per player

SOCIAL MEDIA: #PGATour #FedExCup @Zurich_Classic

OFFICIAL SITE: (Zurich Classic of New Orleans)

TV COVERAGE: Today, April 22 and Friday, April 23: 3:30pm to 6:30pm (EDT) on Golf Channel. On Saturday, April 24 and Sunday, April 25 – Golf Channel’s TV coverage goes from 1:00pm to 3:00pm (EDT), then CBS takes over coverage from 3:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT).

STREAMING: PGA Tour Live will offer streaming coverage of Featured Groups Today from 8:00am to 6:30pm (EDT) and Friday from 9:15am to 6:30pm (EDT) and Friday from 9:15am to 6:30pm (EDT). On Saturday PGA Live Featured Groups runs from 9:00am to 3:00pm (EDT) with Featured Holes going from 3:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT). On Sunday, PGA Tour Live offers Featured Groups streaming from 10:30am to 3:00pm (EDT) and Featured Holes from 3:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT).

PGA TOUR RADIO COVERAGE: Streaming Radio coverage Today and Friday from 1:00pm to 6:30pm (EDT); then Saturday and Sunday, 1:00pm to 6:00pm (EDT) on Sirius XM Satellite Radio. PGA Tour Radio is available on Sirius 208/XM 92) or online on PGATour.com.