Golf
Zurich Classic of New Orleans preview: Cantlay and Schauffele worthy favourites
After two weeks of fierce individual competition some of golf’s finest will team up for the 2023 Zurich Classic as 40 pairs take to TPC Louisiana in New Orleans with defending champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele the front runners.
We preview the key players below.
Cantlay and Schauffele worthy favourites
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans always promises entertainment with the players competing in pairs, shooting some incredibly low numbers. Lasts year’s victors Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele put on a show in a seriously low scoring affair as they finished the tournament 29 under, with 16 other pairs finishing the tournament 20 under or better.
The all-American pairing are 10/3 favourites to defend their title at TPC Louisiana and their fine individual form this year backs this up.
Patrick Cantlay comes into the tournament off the back of a third-place finish in last week’s RBC Heritage event shooting 16-under, just one shot behind the leaders. Schauffele also impressed at the RBC Heritage finishing fourth with a score of 15 under, just one shot behind his teammate.
Both players also had very respectable performances at The Masters with Cantlay finishing tied for 14th place and Schauffele tied for 10th with scores of three under and four under respectively.
The main competition for the favourites comes in the form of Collin Morikawa and Max Homa, another all-American pairing who as 7/1 second favourites will certainly expect to be in contention. Morikawa continues in good form, after a second and a third-place finish on the PGA Tour this year as well as recording a tied tenth place in The Masters.
His partner Max Homa had a PGA Tour win at the Farmers Insurance Open and also has a second and third place finish on the PGA Tour this year. They could certainly cause their fellow countrymen some problems towards the top of the leaderboard.
Fitzpatrick brothers out to impress
Despite missing four cuts in 2023 Matt Fitzpatrick’s form has picked up prior to this week, following up a tied 10th place in The Masters with a second PGA Tour victory of his career at the RBC Heritage.
Despite his fine form he only finds himself ninth favourite at 28/1, largely due to the other half of the pairing, his brother Alex. Matt heads into the tournament with the greatest momentum of all the players while his brother boasts a career best 11th on the Canadian PGA Tour and a 13th on the European Tour.
Older brother Matt will be hoping for a considerable effort from the other half of his pairing to see the brothers trouble those at the top of the leaderboard.
The winners of the first two Zurich Classics started the tournament at odds of 100/1 and 40/1 respectively so it is not out of the question that this outsider pairing could shake up the top of the leaderboard this week in Louisiana.
