DraftKings PGA: Zurich Classic of New Orleans

This article is part of our DraftKings PGA DFS Picks series.

ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS  

Purse: $8.3M
Winners' Share (each): $1.494M
FedEx Cup Points: 400 to each winner
Location: Avondale, La.
Course: TPC Louisiana
Yardage: 7,425
Par: 72
2021 champion: Marc Leishman-Cameron Smith

Tournament Preview

Looking to shake things up and add a little variety to golf, the PGA Tour converted the Zurich Classic to a two-man team event in 2017. It took a few years for DraftKings to catch up, but they finally did last year. Since this is only the second season in DFS play, let's jump right in to the format and scoring.

Eighty two-man teams will play best-ball (fourball) in the first and third rounds and alternate shot (foursomes) in the second and fourth rounds. The Friday cut will be the top-33 teams and ties. You still pick six guys with a $50,000 salary cap. Each golfer on a team will cost the same DraftKings price and get the same DK points. You may pick only of the two -- and it makes absolutely no difference which one. Other than that, the scoring is pretty standard. Not that we concern ourselves too much with FedEx Cup points, but if you're wondering why it says up top that the winners get 400 points apiece, that's because the winner of a tournament normally gets 500 and the runner-up gets 300. There also will be no Official World Golf Ranking points doled out this week.

Here's a good time to point out that getting six guys through to the weekend will be VERY hard. Normally you need six of 65 and ties. This week it's half of that with 33 and ties. Five can win you some cash.

As is always the case, we have some superstars teaming up. In likely the biggest tandem since the team concept began, Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland, the world's Nos. 2- and 5-ranked players, are joining forces. There's also Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, back for their second straight year together, and the defending champions Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman. Smith also won the inaugural team event in 2017 alongside Jonas Blixt. Morikawa played last year with Matthew Wolff and Hovland teamed with former Oklahoma State teammate Kristoffer Ventura.

Ryan Palmer has has had quite a history here. For the first two years of the team format, he teamed with Jordan Spieth; they finished fourth in 2017. Then the past two he was with Jon Rahm, winning in 2019 and tying for seventh last year. And now Palmer has moved on from two former No. 1s to the current No. 1 to team with Scottie Scheffler. Scheffler played last year with Bubba Watson and tied for eighth, but Watson is now with Harold Varner III. If this whole thing seems like high school dating, some of the teams toward the bottom seem like the oddest of pairings, along the lines of the last boy and the last girl without a prom date deciding to go together just so they don't stay home.

But we digress.

Other teams of note are 2013 solo champ/2018 team winner Billy Horschel with Sam Burns, who tied for fourth last year in their first go-round together; Englishmen Tyrrell Hatton and Danny Willett, who tied for eighth in 2021; and the aforementioned Varner and Watson, who finished 1-2 earlier this year at the Saudi International. There are also a trio of European Ryder Cup teams in Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia, who were runners-up in 2019; 2015 solo champ Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson; and Ian Poulter and Shane Lowry.

Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown have competed in all four of the previous team competitions together and were perennial contenders until missing last year's cut. They lost in a playoff in 2017, carried the lead into Sunday in 2018 and tied for fifth in 2019. Brown is far from a strong individual player, but it goes to show that this week different factors can be in play in determining a champions.

Lastly -- and how cool is this? -- Bill Haas is teaming with his father, former PGA Tour great Jay Haas, who is now 68.

The New Orleans Tour stop has actually been around since 1938, when it was named the Crescent City Open, and many of the biggest names in golf having won there. But in a bid to raise sagging interest, the team format was instituted in 2017. So there are four editions we can use as a guide; the tournament was pandemic-canceled in 2020.

Needless to say, as is the case most of the time in team formats, you have to go low to win. Smith-Blixt and Kisner-Brown hold the tournament record of 27-under 261 set in 2017. Horschel-Scott Piercy won at 22-under in 2018 and Rahm-Palmer was at 26-under in 2019. Last year, Smith-Leishman didn't go quite as low at 20-under 268. Rahm-Palmer holds the alternate-shot record at 65. The best-ball record of 60 is held by five tandems, including Kisner-Brown. It's safe to say that strong iron play and quality putting will be imperative this week, so a good team should have at least one of each. Two of each, of course, is better.

TPC Louisiana is a 2004 Pete Dye design, and the tournament was first played there in 2005. It was a big-time birdie-fest even before they instituted the team format. Rose holds the tournament-record at 22-under 266 in 2015. The stock par-72 is not especially long -- except with the par-3s, all of which are over 200 yards. There are four par-4s of 400ish or less. The par-5s tap out at 585, so if there's a long hitter they are all gettable in two. The greens are bermudagrass overseeded with poa, average 5,200 square feet and run 12 on the Stimpmeter. There's water on eight holes and there are more than 100 bunkers.

From the official Golf Course Superintendents sheet, we learned that "the club was without power for 14 days and closed until Nov. 1 after Hurricane Ida hit August 29, 2021. Nine acres of wooded areas had to be removed along with an additional 700 trees on the property. The most notable lost tree was in the middle of No. 11 fairway. 400 new trees have been added to the property since the hurricane." Also: "The goal of recent renovations has been to ensure that the course drains more efficiently since most of it lies below sea level."

You wonder how many more hurricanes the city of New Orleans can withstand.

Weather-wise, temperatures are forecast to be in the low 80s all week, with a little chance of some rain on the weekend and moderate winds throughout the tournament.

Fun New Orleans Tour stop factoids: As mentioned, the tournament dates to 1938, though there was a 10-year hiatus from 1948 to 1957. It's been played every year since with such notable champions through the years as Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Seve Ballesteros, Tom Watson, Bubba Watson, Calvin Peete, Henry Picard, Jimmy Demaret, Billy Casper, Vijay Singh, Miller Barber, Ian Woosnam, Ben Crenshaw and Lee Westwood.

Key Stats to Winning at TPC Louisiana

The most important indicators every week are current form and course history. "Key Stats" follow in importance.

• Strokes Gained: Approach/Greens in Regulation
• Strokes Gained: Putting
• Birdie-or-Better Percentage

Past Champions

2021 - Marc Leishman-Cameron Smith
2020 - None
2019 - Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer
2018 - Billy Horschel and Scott Piercy
2017 - Jonas Blixt and Cameron Smith
2016 - Brian Stuard
2015 - Justin Rose
2014 - Seung-yul Noh
2013 - Billy Horschel
2012 - Jason Dufner

Champion's Profile

We mentioned above how low the scores go, so it's an absolute necessity to get on the green in regulation and make putts. But it's more than just the golf. As we see in Ryder Cup play, team chemistry is also imperative. Many of the guys on Tour are friends off the course, so it's natural for them to connect this week. But there were golfers searching for partners, and there are some curious pairings of seemingly different guys. Horschel has won this tournament as both a single and double, so if there's a horse for this course, he would seem to be the guy. Golfodds.com puts the over/under on the winning score at 266.5 -- 21.5 shots under par.

DRAFTKINGS VALUE PICKS

Based on Standard $50K Salary Cap

Tier 1 Values

Marc Leishman-Cameron Smith - $10,200 (Winning odds at the DraftKings Sportsbook: +1000) 
It's all a question of whether Smith is ready to play. He clearly wasn't at Harbour Town just days after his crushing Masters loss. But he should be good to go alongside his Aussie bud in Leishman. They won't the title last year. Smith won it in 2017 with Jonas Blixt. It's obviously a comfortable format for him.

Sam Burns-Billy Horschel $10,000 (+1200)
These guys teamed up for the first time last year and were an instant hit. They tied for fourth. Partnering with Horschel may have been the best thing to happen to Burns, who was struggling after blowing the Genesis a couple of months earlier. After one week with Horschel, Burns won the Valspar the following week and finished second in the Byron Nelson two weeks after.

Ryan Palmer-Scottie Scheffler - $9,700 (+900)
Whatever it is with Palmer, he knows how to pick a partner. Jordan Spieth (T4 in 2017), Jon Rahm (won in 2019) and now Scheffler. Bet against Scheffler at your own peril. And also bet against Palmer at your own peril, it seems.

Tier 2 Values  

Tommy Fleetwood-Sergio Garcia - $9,400 (+1600)
There's not a good putter within 20 miles of these two guys but sometimes other factors weigh more. This seems like a perfect format for the Euros. These two guys finished as runners-up together in 2019, and Fleetwood was fourth the year before teaming with Chris Paisley.

Talor Gooch-Max Homa - $9,100 (+2200)
These two good friends teamed last year and tied for 17th. They are both better golfers now. Both Gooch and Homa are good all around, so they should be able to handle any situation no matter how they want to set up their team.

Justin Rose-Henrik Stenson - $8,100 (+7000)
Yes, these guys are getting old. But they still did well last year in tying for 11th (and at a significantly higher price at $9,500). They also tied for 19th together in 2018. Rose won this tournament as a single in 2015, and in fact holds the record for this course at 22-under. Stenson's best days are far behind him, but as we saw recently with a T18 at the Valero, he can still deliver some weeks.

Tier 3 Values  

Keith Mitchell-Brandt Snedeker - $7,900 (+6500)
This Georgia native (Mitchell) and Tennessean (Snedeker) complement each other well. Mitchell is the strong player off the tee and in the fairway. Snedeker is good on and around the greens. Sure, Snedeker is not the player he once was, but these guys had a blast last year, tying for fourth.

Scott Brown-Kevin Kisner - $7,600 (+10000)
One of the few pairings that has stayed together since the team format was instituted in 2017, Brown-Kisner still shares the tournament record from when they lost in a playoff that very first year. They were 15th the next year and fifth in 2019 before missing the cut a year ago. Brown has never been a good singles player, but we all know Kisner's ability in a match-play setting.

Tyler Duncan-Adam Schenk - $7,100 (+18000)
These two Purdue Boilermakers (32-year-old Duncan is two years older than Schenk) will be back for a fourth straight time together. They tied for seventh in 2018 and for 11tha year ago. As we saw last week with Duncan with a T12 at Harbour Town, he's a far more viable fantasy option on shorter tracks.

Long-Shot Values

Charley Hoffman-Nick Watney - $7,000 (+18000)
These two Californians now in their 40s have played together in every team edition here. They've made the cut every year and they have finished fifth, ninth and, last year, 11th. Both these guys are far from their stellar primes, but here's a situation where teamwork and chemistry override current form.

Lee Hodges-Vince Whaley - $6,700 (+1800)
Hodges and Whaley are both having decent seasons on Tour, both well inside the top-125 in the FedExCup standings. Hodges has not played this tournament before, but Whaley tied for 29th last year with Michael Gligic. We don't know how they plan to set things up, but we'd like to see Whaley with the putter in his hand most of the time. He's 42nd on tour in Strokes Gained: Putting and 50th in birdie average.

Wesley Bryan-Trey Mullinax - $6,300 (+30000)
Bryan, from South Carolina, and Mullinax, from Alabama, have not played together before. Mullinax teamed with Scott Stallings in 2019 and they blew the doors off the fourball days, shooting 61 on Thursday and 62 on Saturday before settling into a tie for 13th. Mullinax is the big hitter and Bryan is known for his short-game wizardry. The potential is there. This is far from a sure thing.