Zurich Classic of New Orleans Picks, Best Bets and Golf Odds:
Matt Fitzpatrick won for the second time this season and for the second time at the RBC Heritage (2023) in a playoff over Scottie Scheffler, the 2024 RBC Heritage champion.
Fitzpatrick failed to convert his up-and-down for par on the 72nd hole, sending the pair back to the 18th for the tournament’s fourth playoff in five events. Scheffler pushed his approach shot short and right, while Fitzpatrick hit the shot of the tournament, a 4-iron to 13 feet before curling in the birdie putt for the victory.
Matt and younger brother Alex, who just won his first DP World Tour event at the Hero Indian Open at the end of March, are the 12-1 favorites for this week’s team event at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
Ryan Gerard was supposed to team up with fellow Tar Heel David Ford, but Ford withdrew, so he’ll partner with Sebastian Yellamaraju, who has five top-20 finishes in his rookie PGA Tour season. They are priced at 14-1.
Shane Lowry won this event two years ago with best pal Rory McIlroy but will try to do so this year with a new partner: fellow Jupiter, Fla., resident Brooks Koepka (15-1).
Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak (+1750) return to defend their 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans title.
A couple of returning teams are next on the odds board, including Michael Thorbjornsen and Karl Vilips (+1850), who placed fourth here last year, Aaron Rai and Sahith Theegala (+2050), who finished T-18.
Wyndham Clark and Taylor Moore (22-1) have a combined four top-10s in this format but never with each other.
Several other teams slot in at 25-1, including Johnny Keefer/Michael Brennan, Haotong Li/Jordan Smith, Davis Thompson/Austin Eckroat, Matt McCarty/Mac Meissner and Marco Penge/Matt Wallace.
The 2023 Zurich winners, Nick Hardy and Davis Riley, are 80-1.
The Event
The Zurich Classic of New Orleans has a history that dates to 1938 and has been played annually on the PGA Tour since 1958. Swiss insurance company Zurich took over as the tournament sponsor in 2005, and the Fore! Kids Foundation serves as the event organizer. In 2017, the Zurich Classic became a team event with 80 teams of two players, with 33 teams and ties making the weekend cut. The event winners do not receive Masters invitations nor OWGR points but do earn 500 FedEx Cup points, two-year PGA Tour exemptions, plus invitations to the PGA Championship, Sentry Tournament of Champions and The Players Championship.
In the first round, the teams will compete in fourball (best ball), which sees each player use their own ball, with the teammate with the lowest score on each hole providing that team’s score per hole.
There’s a change for the second round, with foursomes (alternate shot) the order of the day, as each team member takes alternate shots with the same ball.
After the end of Friday’s action, there is a cut that sees the top 33 teams and ties make it to the weekend. The remaining teams once again play a round of fourball on Saturday before finishing with another round of foursomes on Sunday.
In the event of a tie at the end of Sunday’s action, a sudden-death playoff will be held with the two formats alternating after each hole until a winner is found.
The Field
Here are the 74 two-man teams for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans:
The Course
TPC Louisiana has hosted the Zurich Classic of New Orleans since 2005 (except 2006, when course renovations post-Hurricane Katrina forced a move back to English Turn). It is in Avondale, a 15-minute drive southwest of Bourbon Street. The track was designed by Pete Dye in 2004 and renovated by Chris Gray in 2012. It is a public course of 7,425 yards and plays as a par-72.
The layout is defended by 106 bunkers (second most on tour) and five water hazards that are in play on seven holes. Two days after the 2019 tournament, the greens were redone with TifEagle Bermuda grass (changing from MiniVerde Bermuda) overseeded with Poa Trivialis, and the fairways (34.5-yard average width) were transformed to Celebration Bermudagrass. The greens are 5,225 square feet on average and average speed (12 on stimpmeter).
The Bermuda rough is only two inches and fairly non-penal.
There is no elevation on this course as it is the flattest layout on the PGA Tour.
Pete Dye is the designer, so there are a fair number of Dye courses every year on the PGA Tour schedule if you are looking for a course correlation. They include:
Austin Country Club – WGC Dell Match Play since 2016
Crooked Stick – 2012 and 2016 BMW Championship
Harbour Town – RBC Heritage
Ocean Course – Kiawah Island – 2012 PGA Championship
TPC River Highlands – The Travelers
TPC Sawgrass – The Players Championship
TPC Stadium, PGA West – The American Express since 2016
Whistling Straits – 2010 and 2015 PGA Championship
Other correlated courses are the other TPCs on the PGA Tour, including TPC Twin Cities and TPC Scottsdale along with Detroit Golf Club.
Weather
The AccuWeather forecast indicates potential windy conditions in the first two rounds, but also heating up with humid conditions over the weekend.
Zurich Classic of New Orleans Recent History/Winners
2025: Andrew Novak/Ben Griffin (-28/260); 25-1
2024: Shane Lowry/Rory McIlroy (-25/263); 8-1*
2023: Nick Hardy/Davis Riley (-30/258); 40-1
2022: Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele (-29/259); 9-1
2021: Marc Leishman/Cameron Smith (-20/268); 12-1**
2020: Tournament canceled (COVID-19)
2019: Ryan Palmer/Jon Rahm (-26/262); 16-1
2018: Billy Horschel/Scott Piercy (-22/266); 40-1
2017: Jonas Blixt/Cameron Smith (-27/261); 100-1***
Playoff win over Chad Ramey/Martin Trainer – *
Playoff win over Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel – **
Playoff win over Scott Brown/Kevin Kisner – ***
Selections
Sudarshan Yellamaraju/Ryan Gerard (+1750, DraftKings)
Gerard ended 2025 and began 2026 with three consecutive runner-up finishes. While he has cooled a bit, he is still playing solid golf and is 12th this season on the PGA Tour for Strokes Gained: Approach.
He was initially supposed to pair with fellow North Carolina Tar Heel David Ford, but Ford had to W/D.
Enter Sudarshan Yellamaraju, who has five top-20 and two top-6 finishes this season and ranks inside the top 33 on TOUR for Strokes Gained: Total (17th), Putting (19th), Approach (26th) and Off-The-Tee (33rd).
Gerard has three runner-up finishes on the PGA Tour (one on the DPWT as well) over the last two seasons. Picking up the last-minute ringer with the Canadian rookie just might get him through that door for his first victory.
Michael Thorbjornsen/Karl Vilips (20-1, Caesars Sportsbook)
This duo finished fourth here last year.
They were college teammates at Stanford, and both live in the Jacksonville area, where they practice regularly on another Pete Dye layout at TPC Sawgrass.
Thorbjornsen has contended a couple of times this year in Phoenix, Houston and at The Players, and he has also contended on both Pete Dye and TPC courses (i.e., 2022 Travelers Championship at TPC River Highlands with a T-4 finish when still an amateur).
Haotong Li/Jordan Smith (25-1, BetMGM)
This week is the 10th anniversary of Li’s first DP World Tour victory in his native China at the Volvo China Open. However, he is not playing his home open this week and is attempting to earn his first PGA Tour victory this week, as is two-time DP World Tour winner Smith.
These two played together many times over the years on the DPWT, and both rank in the top 25 for Strokes Gained: Total over the last 24 rounds.
Hayden Springer/Alex Smalley (40-1, Caesars Sportsbook)
Smalley has not made the cut here in three attempts but has made 11 of his last 12 cuts dating to last fall.
While Smalley is not a particularly long hitter off the tee, he is excellent with his irons (top 30 on tour) and he is now paired with a longer hitter in Springer, who had to go down to the Korn Ferry Tour this fall but was one of the bigger hitters on the PGA Tour last season (No. 22 for Club Head Speed). Springer was T-18 here last year with Nate Lashley.
Rico Hoey/David Lipsky (45-1, Circa Sports)
Lipsky has finished fourth here twice, last year with Dylan Wu and in 2022 with Aaron Rai.
This year, Lipsky pairs up with Hoey, who has cooled a bit from his 2025 season, during which he had six top-10 finishes.
Hoey ranked third last season for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee (also eighth for Strokes Gained: Approach) and could be the pop off the tee that a shorter, but accurate hitter like Lipsky needs to finally get to the top here in an event where he has always played well.
Placement markets, matchups, and/or other bets will be up Wednesday at VSiN.com/picks
