John Daly, playing a golf tournament in New Orleans?
Maybe his partner will keep him on the straight and narrow, at least as far as fairways go.
The PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic will be played this week at the TPC Louisiana in Avondale, Louisiana, about 15 miles away and across the Mississippi River from Bourbon Street. Eighty two-man teams will compete in the Tour’s only team stroke-play event.
This year’s event is yielding some of the most interesting partnerships since the tournament went to that format in 2017, including Daly playing with Jacksonville native David Duval, one of two teams to include PGA Tour Champions players.
Daly won two major championships, the 1991 PGA and the 1995 British Open. Duval won the 2001 British Open and the 1999 Players to highlight his 13 PGA Tour titles.
What most of the players in the Zurich field might not know – especially those in the current generation of PGA Tour players – is Duval and Daly occasionally played money games together when they were in their prime on the Tour and did quite well.
Here are some other teams to watch next week:
- Defending champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele return. Word is that Cantlay is already on the clock. However, this has become quite the formidable team: they’ve gone 6-3 together in the last three international match play events (2019 and 2022 Presidents Cups, 2021 Ryder Cup).
- Billy Horschel and Sam Burns are partnering again. They finished second by two shots last year. Horschel has won the Zurich Classic as an individual (2013) and with a partner (with Scott Piercy in 2018).
- Sam Ryder and Doc Redman are also together again. They finished third last year.
- Zach Johnson and Steve Stricker will form a team of the current and most recent U.S. Ryder Cup captains. Stricker is also the defending champion of the Constellation Furyk & Friends.
- Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim will reunite their 2022 Presidents Cup partnership that resulted in a 1-up victory over Cantlay and Schauffele.
- The team to beat, however, might be two-time major champion Collin Morikawa and Max Homa.
- Also: David Lingmerth and Jonas Blixt (who also are both natives of Sweden) and Tyson Alexander and Carl Yuan. Blixt won the Zurich Classic with 2022 Players champion Cameron Smith in 2017.
