This week, the PGA TOUR will be hosting their only team event of the season in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which will be played at TPC Louisiana (par 72, 7,425 yards, POA Trivialis greens). This course has hosted the Zurich Classic since 2005 and this tournament will be a team-based event for the eighth time in a row. There will be 80 two-player teams competing this week and a cut after the first two rounds, with the top-33 and ties advancing. The first and third rounds will be best ball format and the second and fourth rounds will be alternate shot. The Irish pairing of Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry won last year’s Zurich Classic at -25. Note that each golfer will accrue the same amount of FPTS as their teammate, so there is no advantage to rostering one teammate over the other on DraftKings this week.
TPC Louisiana was designed by Pete Dye and is a course that features wide fairways, thin rough, small greens, 106 bunkers and water in play on six holes. Like most Dye creations, TPC Louisiana is a course that favors accuracy over distance and to win at this susceptible track, you need to catch fire with both your irons and putter. While we don’t have SG data for the Zurich Classic since it became a team-based tournament in 2017, when it was a standard stroke play event prior to the change, two of the final four individual winners of the Zurich Classic finished the event top-10 in both SG APP and SGP at TPC Louisiana. As a classic par 72 with four par fives, capitalizing on these four holes is essential for success at TPC Louisiana. Before becoming a team-based tournament, four of the final individual winners of the Zurich Classic finished the event top-eight in par five efficiency.
Below, I have featured three of my favorite DraftKings bargain plays for the Zurich Classic, which are all priced under $7.5K.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $500K Sand Trap [$100K to 1st]
Victor Perez/Matthieu Pavon ($7,400) – Perez and Pavon are both having solid seasons, and these French professionals should thrive in their first attempt as a duo this week. This season, Perez has made 5-of-8 cuts, while Pavon has made 8-of-11 cuts. As of late, Perez has flashed strong upside with three top-25 finishes in his last four starts.
While this will be Pavon’s debut at TPC Louisiana, Perez has experience at the team-based Zurich Classic, with a T-13 finish at this event two years ago with Thomas Detry as his partner. Perez and Pavon have the potential for a similar performance this week and are one of the best values on the board.
Bud Cauley/Kevin Tway ($7,300) – While Cauley and Tway have never competed together at TPC Louisiana, both players have been successful at the Dye design in the past. Cauley finished T-11 as an individual at TPC Louisiana in 2014 and then with Justin Thomas as his partner, he finished T-5 at the par 72 in 2017. As for Tway, he finished T-11 at last year’s Zurich Classic and third at the event in 2017, both which came with Kelly Kraft as his teammate.
As for their current forms, Tway has missed two cuts in a row, but Cauley has been outstanding with three top-six finishes in his last four starts. Cauley ranks seventh in total strokes gained this season and his irons have been the key to his success, with the veteran ranking 16th in SG APP. Cauley should carry his team to at least a top-30 finish this weekend and this pairing of he and Tway are a steal at only $7,300.
Luke List/Henrik Norlander ($7,200) – This will be List and Norlander’s third straight year competing at the Zurich Classic together, and they have been great as a pairing. After finishing T-23 in 2023, the duo finished T-14 at TPC Louisiana last season. List’s form has been suspect recently, with the veteran only making one of his last five cuts, but Norlander has finished inside the top-20 in three of his last four starts, including a T-12 at the Valero Texas Open three weeks ago.
Norlander impressively ranks third in SG APP this season and with him striking the ball at such a high level, this Norlander/List squad has top-20 upside this weekend.
