The Tour is gearing up for its next stop at the Pete Dye-designed TPC Louisiana for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans — the Tour's standalone team event.
The Zurich Classic odds board features some top-ranked pairings like Viktor Hovland-Collin Morikawa and Patrick Cantlay-Xander Schauffele and also includes the return of OWGR No. 1 Scottie Scheffler after his dominant Masters victory, but with such short odds, our outright predictions — as well as Tour Junkies' best bets — look past the stars and to some more valuable combinations.
We comb through the pairings and highlight and favorite, a sleeper, and a longshot worth backing before things get rolling on Thursday, April 21.
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Zurich Classic outright picks
- Favorite: Sam Burns/Billy Horschel (+1,300)
- Sleeper: Talor Gooch/Max Homa (+2,800)
- Longshot: Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown (+10,000)
Picks were made on 4/18/2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET.
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Zurich Classic outright picks
Among the favorites: Sam Burns/Billy Horschel (+1,300)
While it may be uber-tempting to lean on the star-studded duos atop the board like Hovland-Morikawa or Cantlay-Schauffele, I'm actually going to go a little further down the top tier to Sam Burns and Billy Horschel, available at +1,300 at FanDuel.
The tandem — an odd mix of young potential and veteran experience — finished T4 here a year ago with an opening-round 63, just two shots behind the winning pair of Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman.
Since this time last year, Burns has notched three Tour victories, including a successful title defense at the Valspar just over a month ago. Horschel, on the other hand, has found himself in the mix on multiple occasions, with a T2 at Bay Hill, a T6 in Phoenix, and a T21 at last week's RBC Heritage, where he slipped down the board after a final-round 71 in Sunday's scorable conditions.
However, their games actually compliment each other nicely. Horschel brings a great history at team events, a strong wedge game, and his veteran craftiness on and around the greens. Burns, on the other hand, can dominate nearly any course with his iron play and has actually been riding a hot putter through this recent stretch.
Put it all together and you get a recipe for a ton of quality birdie looks, and more importantly, the means to cash those looks in. That winning upside at nearly twice the number of the top tandems makes this pairing too good to pass up.
Sleeper to watch: Talor Gooch/Max Homa (+2,800)
This Talor Gooch-Max Homa pairing is one that makes a lot of sense, and like that of Burns-Horschel, has real potential of winning this week.
Both guys are having the best, most consistent seasons of their careers, and have already notched a Tour win this season (Gooch at the RSM Classic, Homa at the Fortinet Championship).
Gooch has missed three cuts dating back to his RSM win but hasn't finished worse than T27 in any other event during that span. In the same vein, Homa has finished inside the Top 20 in five of his last eight starts.
Each of them is strong on approach (extra important on Pete Dye courses) and while Gooch can struggle off the tee at times, he makes up for it with stellar play around the greens (sixth this season).
The duo played really well during its alternate-shot rounds a year ago. If it can be just a couple of shots better through the two best-ball rounds, the pairing should find themselves in the mix on the weekend.
Putting could ultimately be what holds the Gooch-Homa duo back, but among the groups in this odds range, there may not be one with better win prospects than these guys.
Longshot worth a look: Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown (+10,000)
When you dig deep into this week's odds boards, there are a couple of pairings that stand out, one being Kevin Kisner and Scott Brown.
FanDuel has the South Carolina duo listed at 55/1, but you can find them at 90/1 at bet365 and 100/1 at DraftKings, so be sure to get the good number.
These guys are strictly a tournament history play, having played here four times to the tune of a playoff loss solo-second in 2017, T15 in 2018, T5 in 2019, and a missed cut a year ago.
Kisner has some really strong finishes this season, including a runner-up at Dell Match Play and a solo-fourth at The PLAYERS. Brown has some decent finishes in mostly opposite-field Tour events but consistently plays well alongside Kisner in this South Carolina pairing.
It's certainly a flier, but for a tandem that's consistently outplayed top pairings year after year, they're worth some attention.
