Zurich Classic: Trend Table
Full field - but this is a different type of tournament.
The only team tournament during the PGA Tour season has arrived and it’s a different type of a tournament! I’ll go over how it actually works below and I’ll repost this exact blurb in the player (team) pool tomorrow so we have it completely dialed in.
This week, we head to TPC Louisiana and the Zurich Classic. It’s the only team event the PGA Tour hosts in which two golfers team up to tackle the field of 160 players combined in to 80 teams.
The teams start round one on Thursday with Best Ball (best score of the two goes on the scorecard) and plays round two Friday with Alternate Shot (alternating shots until the hole is complete).
After the cut (top 33 teams and ties after round two), the teams repeat Best Ball on Saturday and finish the tournament with Alternate Shot on Sunday.
This, being the full field trend table, will only get us so far and shouldn’t be used as heavily as we normally would use it to find our value pieces. The variance of the format is just so wide, we’re best off looking at teams that are strong together and you’ll get those in the Player (Team) Pool which should be hitting your inbox tomorrow.
I won’t be in depth on analysis of the trend table this week simply due to all of the constraints mentioned above.
I want to be up front - I think Jonathan Byrd’s numbers are super, super, super noisy and I’m proceeding with extreme caution.
Pat Cantlay finding his game is very helpful for he & an already strong Xander at a tournament they’ve won before. You won’t get good numbers on them at a book, however.
Ryan Brehm & Mark Hubbard are paired together and super high in the trend table and look like a solid value.
S.H. Kim, C.T. Pan, Kevin Streelman & Dylan Wu are all in the team pool as well (all with different teammates) but finding themselves on the top page doesn’t hurt.
Worth noting here that Billy Horschel won last week at an event he wasn’t tracked because Corales doesn’t have Shot Link. His game is in great shape.
A bunch of known names here in the positive should give you confidence in playing the top guys.
I like Straka & Garnett as a team a ton and you’ll see them in the team pool. They’re both lower in the list here, but what their numbers indicate to me is that they’re keeping their games steady.
Slight concerns starting with Cole & Yu, but it’s not anything I’d instantly fade on.
I am high on the Greyson Sigg (shocking), Keith Mitchell, Luke List, Will Zalatoris & Tom Hoge teams but I will say it’s slightly concerning to see them all losing as much as they are on their recent form.
Both Sigg & Hoge did complete high finishes last week at Corales & RBC Heritage, respectively (Sigg’s round not tracked).
Justin Lower was awesome last week in Corales (not tracked) so I think this number is slightly skewed.
Ghim is very concerning, as is Hojgaard.
Alex Fitzpatrick played well at Corales last week (23rd) and has made 5/7 cuts on the World Tour this year. His poor tracked numbers have caused he & Matt to miss the team pool, but I don’t think they’re an auto fade.