Confidence Factor: Zurich Classic of New Orleans

For the second year in a row the Zurich Classic of New Orleans will shake it up on the PGA TOUR. Last year was the first time since 1981 that the TOUR implemented a partner’s game as an official event. Featuring foursomes and fourballs in alternating rounds, 80, two-man teams will battle it out again at TPC Louisiana for over $1 million and 400 FedExCup points EACH to the winners. If the second-year format wasn’t enough, the TOUR is introducing walk-up music to introduce the pairings on the first tee as well. This event will welcome 10 of the top 15 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, 13 previous winners from this season and will host the last four major champions. Remember PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO has the week off but the One & Done presented by SERVPRO is ready to go! The 80 pairs will get another crack at the 7,425-yard, Par-72 track designed by Pete Dye. Since becoming the host course for this event in 2005, TPC Louisiana has been annually run over by the TOUR’s best players. Not even the fantastic local food and drink can protect this layout as the winning scores are littered with birdies every April. There is a new wrinkle in the format this season as the best-ball and alternate shot sessions will flip rounds. Last year, alternate shot was Thursday and Saturday with best-ball on Friday and Sunday. This time around the final round will use alternate shot, the more difficult of the two formats, to decide the champion on Sunday. After seeing the early forecast, I type SUNDAY with great confidence! In the first incarnation of the partner’s event last year, the team of Jordan Spieth & Ryan Palmer and the then-team of Kyle Stanley & Ryan Ruffels both fired 66 for the best round of the week in alternate shot. The best-ball honors went to South African pair Retief Goosen & Tyrone Van Aswegen and vanquished playoff participants Kevin Kisner & Scott Brown with 60. TALES OF THE TAPE England’s Justin Rose torched TPC Louisiana to the tune of 22-under-par 266 to set the tournament record in 2015. He didn’t square a bogey in his last 66 holes and played his final 54 in 19-under. Weather played a big part in this winning formula as preferred lies were used in all four rounds as the course was soaked. The top 27 players posted exactly TWO rounds worse than par for the week. Usually a week of posting a double-digit total is good for the wallet. In 2015 it was good enough for T48. Mother Nature took over again in 2016 as the event was shortened to 54 holes yet finished on Monday. Brian Stuard, Byeong-Hun An and Jamie Lovemark all posted 15-under-par to force extra holes on the extra day. Stuard didn’t make a bogey on the week and his birdie on the second playoff hole gave him his first win on TOUR. In addition to finishing without a bogey he also didn’t miss a putt inside 10 feet on the pure greens. Stuard isn’t long off the tee by any definition but he navigated the weather delays and preferred lies to hold off the bigger hitting An and Lovemark. He was 79th in driving distance and T73 in fairways for the week. As I’ve noted in the table above, there was more than one way to hit the podium as partners last year. The winning pair avoided bogeys completely while their competitors in the playoff racked up a whopping 28 birdies. This is even more amazing considering that 25 of the 42 teams that made the cut couldn’t break par on Saturday in the alternate-shot format due to winds blowing 20-25 mph and gusts topping 30 mph. Smith & Blixt entered the final round with a four-shot lead before Kisner & Brown tied the event record for best-ball with 60 to force the playoff, albeit with preferred lies. There were only four, bogey-free rounds in the alternate shot format and half were recorded by the champions. NOTE: Golfers inside the top 25-ish in each statistic on the 2017-18 PGA TOUR are listed only if they are scheduled to compete this week. * – Finished inside the top 25 at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans since 2013 or is a former champion. Birdie Average Rank Golfer 4 *Justin Rose 5 *Justin Thomas 5 *Jason Day 9 *Jordan Spieth 11 Brendan Steele 12 *Chesson Hadley 15 Patrick Reed 22 Tommy Fleetwood 22 J.J. Spaun 24 Aaron Wise 24 Trey Mullinax Greens in Regulation Rank Golfer 2 *Jordan Spieth 3 Kevin Streelman 4 Pat Perez 4 Gary Woodland 7 Brendan Steele 8 *Bubba Watson 10 Rafael Cabrera-Bello 11 *Keegan Bradley 12 *Justin Thomas 14 Sam Ryder 18 Emiliano Grillo 19 C.T. Pan 20 Chez Reavie 21 Patrick Cantlay 23 Scott Piercy 26 *Justin Rose Putting: Birdie-or-Better Percentage Rank Golfer 4 *Jason Day 5 *Justin Thomas 6 *Justin Rose 9 Ricky Barnes 12 *Cameron Smith 12 Patrick Reed 15 Aaron Wise 16 Tommy Fleetwood 19 *Chesson Hadley 21 Pat Perez 22 Brendan Steele 25 Zach Johnson Bogey Avoidance Rank Golfer 1 Kevin Streelman 2 *Jordan Spieth 6 *Justin Thomas 7 *Cameron Smith 7 *Justin Rose 10 Chez Reavie 11 Brandt Snedeker 12 Johnson Wagner 14 Zach Johnson 16 Emiliano Grillo 18 William McGirt 19 *Bubba Watson 20 Matt Kuchar 23 Andrew Landry 24 *Chris Kirk 25 Tony Finau   Pete Dye’s challenge is quite simple: great shots will get greatly rewarded and those that don’t won’t. Those who play closer to the hazard will find the better line to the green. Teams that pick and choose their spots to attack and lay off will be the ones looking to take home the trophy on Sunday. This will be the second Pete Dye test in three weeks (Harbour Town) and the third consecutive week on Bermuda (Miniverde) greens and that will favor the guys who didn’t pack it in after Augusta. With four Par-5 holes, rough at only two inches and greens in perfect conditions, there will be ample opportunities to score. The accurate will be rewarded as the greens classify below-average in square footage (5,225 on average) and are multi-tiered reinforcing that great shots will have great opportunities to score. Anytime gamers hear “Pete Dye course” many thoughts start running through their collective heads. Or at least should. This week is the exception, not the rule, as TPC Louisiana usually plays as one of the easier tracks on TOUR. Or will it? New Orleans, for once, isn’t completely soaked. The forecast, as of Tuesday, called for some rain on Thursday yet sunshine and below-normal temperatures for the rest of the week. Usually this time of year thunderstorms are the norm, not the exception, so I’m of the opinion scores will creep up. With less humidity and cooler temperatures, the ball won’t go as far. It also won’t plug so it will give the accurate players perhaps an advantage. The pros always mention they would love to have firm and fast but the absence of wind after Thursday suggests that won’t be the case. There are too many angles to count this week when assessing possible options. I’ll point out that EVERBODY’S favorite pair from last year, Justin Rose & Henrik Stenson, missed the cut. So did Jason Day & Rickie Fowler. So did Daniel Berger and Thomas Pieters. I’m going to obviously look at who is back again together for a second run because that suggests the partnership was working. Jordan Spieth played with Ryan Palmer last year because he lost a bet. They’re back again after finishing fourth last year. #Clues. I don’t think omitting players who have been hot the last three weeks is a sane formula either as hot golf is hot golf. Course Ratings: 2011 is the only year that the course played over par. It has ranked inside of the top 12 easiest courses annually since. Rob Bolton’s Power Rankings will give you more juice for the week so make sure you stop by. It’s also who I trust with the weather each week so pay attention! NOTE: The groups below are comprehensive to assist in data mining. Inclusion doesn’t imply automatic endorsement in every fantasy game as all decisions are specific to your situation. CONFIDENCE MEN 2017 Podium Finishers BUILDING CONFIDENCE Players in the field this year, regardless of partner; *different partner OTHER SIGNS OF CONFIDENCE Players in the field this year, regardless of partner; *different partner

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