Breaking up the regular season grind, the Tour heads to Louisiana this week for the Zurich Classic. This will be year six of The Zurich Classic as a team event. We’ll begin with 74 teams of two playing a best-ball round on Thursday, followed by an alternate-shot round on Friday, before the field is cut to the top 33 duos and ties for the weekend.
Cut makers will go back to best ball on Saturday before the event finishes with a final round of alternate shot on Sunday. This is back-to-back Pete Dye courses, the third in the past six weeks, so there’s some continuity around profiling the style of golfer that’s likely to find success this week. Unfortunately, the format makes it a tricky week to handicap things.
I’m all for wrinkles in the schedule to break up the monotonous stroke-play format we’re accustomed to. However, the combination of a Pete Dye track, notorious for leveling the playing field, no shotlink data, and two rounds of alternate shot makes this a better watch than a betting event, so I’ll have a light card this week.
For more course details, check out Ron’s course preview. It’s the best in the business, bar none.
Podcast: Apple | Spotify
YouTube: Betsperts Golf
Key Rabbit Hole Stats This Week:
- SG: APP (Short-term form + Baseline form)
- SG: Ball-striking (Less than driver)
- Birdie or Better%
- Par-5 Scoring
There are millions of ways to bet on this beautiful game. My goal with this piece is to touch on the golfers I’m targeting in the outright market this week. Remember to check out the Rabbit Hole, our customizable stat database. It can help you pare down your player pool each week.
Utilize our Discord for up-to-the-minute lines and betting advice. My full card and live in-tournament bets will be posted there. Reach out if you need help getting started.
For outrights, I typically allot 1.5 to 2 units, sometimes more for bigger events. It prevents me from chasing, knowing that I’m positioned to profit if I can hit 5-6 outrights a season. Anything beyond that is gravy. It also helps me stake bets to a flat “to win” amount regardless of their outright price.
This will be a lighter week for me, since the event is a bit more SG: Vibes than data-driven. We also have a few signature events and the PGA Championship right around the corner.
*Betting lines are accurate at the time of publication in Discord.
Noonan’s Zurich Classic Betting Picks
Billy Horschel and Tom Hoge (66/1)
I’m casting aside all the data this week and taking a single shot with Billy Horschel and Tom Hoge. These two were set to be teammates for this event last season before Horschel withdrew with an injury. Horschel has won here twice, once as a solo in 2013, when the event was still a stroke-play format, and again in 2018 with Scott Piercy as his teammate in the format we’ll see this week.
Neither player enters the week in good form, but they’ve both fared well in less-than-driver setups on Pete Dye tracks in the past, and it’s one of the few palatable prices on the board.
We’re on to Doral.
