Tag: 2021 Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Watch: Wyndham Clark risks life and limb in snake-and-alligator-infested pond

Wyndham Clark didn’t mind getting his shirt dirty. It was the snakes and alligators he was worried about.

AVONDALE, La. – Wyndham Clark didn’t mind getting his shirt dirty. It was the snakes and alligators he was worried about.

Playing with teammate Erik van Rooyen in the best-ball format on Saturday, Clark hit his tee shot to the edge of a pond on the par-4 16th hole at TPC Louisiana. With van Rooyen having par locked up, he took off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants and figured he had nothing to lose – except maybe a leg.

“The first thing that went through my mind was snakes because I had to take my shoes off,” he said. “There’s snakes in Louisiana, so I thought about the snakes. And then I was like, well, there’s alligators all over this golf course right now, and so I was just – and it’s also one of the ponds where there’s big ones. I definitely thought about it.”

Sam Ryder made an albatross on No. 2, holing a 5-iron from 206 yards, otherwise Clark’s shot would have been hands-down the shot of the day. He took a mighty whack with his wedge and the ball exploded out of the muck and sailed on to the green, nearly going in for eagle.

Clark missed the 15-foot birdie putt but got a round of applause from the peanut gallery for the effort.

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Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel lead Zurich Classic, but expect a wild race to the finish

Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel will try to end long winless droughts on the PGA Tour in New Orleans but 16 teams are within 4 shots.

AVONDALE, La. – Tony Finau and Cameron Champ have been flipping a coin on the first tee all week to decide who leads things off and said they likely would do so again on Sunday when the format at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans flips back to alternate-shot in the team competition.

Might as well flip a coin to decide who is going to win the title, too. There are 16 teams within four strokes of the 54-hole leaders, the South African pair of Louis Oosthuiazen and Charl Schwartzel, who “dovetailed” on Saturday to a best-ball score of 9-under 63 and a 54-hole total of 19-under 197 at TPC Louisiana.

Schwartzel led the way early as Oosthuizen didn’t make a birdie until pouring in a 19-foot birdie putt at No. 11. But once his putter warmed up the team birdied six of the last eight holes, including the final three. Oosthuizen provided the exclamation point at the par-3 17th, canning a bomb from 34 feet, the only birdie at the hole all day.

“Now and then you get a putt like that where you feel like you’re actually going to make it, you stand over it and just need to hit a good stroke,” Oosthuizen said. “It was one of those.”

But the veteran South Africans know that tomorrow is another day and a more challenging format, where birdies will be more scarce, especially if the wind blows again. Oosthuizen has never won on American soil and is winless on the PGA Tour since the 2010 British Open, while Schwartzel, the 2011 Masters champion, hasn’t hoisted a trophy on the PGA Tour since the 2016 Valspar Championship. Could they follow in the footsteps of Jordan Spieth and Hideki Matsuyama on the PGA Tour and Lydia Ko on the LPGA by ending lengthy victory droughts tomorrow?

“I think anyone within four shots of the lead has got a chance with the format that it is tomorrow,” Oosthuizen said. “It’s going to be tough. We need to play really well.”

Indeed, there is a lot of golf still to be played before a team gets to slip on the championship belts. But to hear Schwartzel tell it, the tougher the better for them.

“The more difficult it is, the better we both play, so the format for tomorrow in a way suits us, and if we execute the shots the way we see it, we’ll have a good chance,” he said.

Zurich Classic: Leaderboard | Yardage book

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Hot on their heels include the team of Australians Cameron Smith, who won the team title in 2017, and Marc Leishman, who showed up to the first team wearing a mullet wig to match that of his partner and resembled the hairdo of competitor Pat Perez who was playing in the same group.

The first-tee hijinks wasn’t Leishman’s only contribution on Saturday. He went to the range after Friday’s round and realized his setup was too open. With his wedges dialed in once again, Leishman made five birdies including all three for their team on the second nine en route to a second round of 63 in the four-ball format.

“I was happy just being there and watching Leish play good golf,” said Smith, who chipped in at the third hole but didn’t make a birdie after the eighth. “It was good to see.”

On a day when six teams posted 63, Cameron Champ and Tony Finau, co-leaders after 36 holes, managed only to shoot 5-under 67, but a birdie at the last lifted them within one stroke of the lead heading into the final round.  as Champ was held to one birdie on the day.

“When I was a little off, he picked me up; when he was a little off, I picked him up,” Finau said. “That’s the essence of team golf.”

Bubba Watson, who won here in 2011 as an individual, and partner Scottie Scheffler, who is still looking for his maiden win on the PGA Tour, and the Norwegian duo of Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura are each two strokes back in a tie for fourth. Hovland and Ventura struggled to shoot 68 in best ball, but were encouraged by the fact that they tied for the low round of the day in the alternate-shot format on Friday (68). Their plan for Sunday?

“I would just say play stress-free golf,” Hovland said. “Boring golf is good.”

Defending champions Jon Rahm and Ryan Palmer (T-9) are among the group four back, and shot 7-under 65 in the alternate-shot format in 2019. Finau predicted a score in the 60s would probably be good enough for any of the top contenders. He, too, is trying to end a winless streak dating to 2016. How meaningful would it be to win a team event versus an individual title for him?

“It would be quite special,” Finau said. “I don’t know too many guys that can say that they’ve won team events because there’s only one out here. So it almost would be I think even more special to win, and to win with this guy would be really special.”

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Jon Rahm has a special new yardage book for Zurich Classic title defense with Ryan Palmer

Jon Rahm has a special yardage book for his Zurich Classic of New Orleans title defense with Ryan Palmer.

Ever since Jon Rahm and wife Kelley welcomed their first son, Kepa, to the world just days before the Masters, the deliveryman has been doing double duty dropping off boxes of gifts at their door.

There have been children’s books and onesies galore, including one from his apparel sponsor, Travis Matthew, with the logo of his favorite Spanish soccer team, Athletic Bilbao. His equipment maker, Callaway, gave Kepa his first club and Rahm’s swing instructor sent him a book about fellow Spaniard Seve Ballesteros so that he can pass down the legend of Seve to the next generation. But of all the presents, there’s one that stood out for Rahm, a yardage book from his former college teammate Ki Taek Lee, who caddies on the PGA Tour for K.J. Choi, with the mascot of their alma mater, Arizona State University, the logo of Rahm’s favorite soccer team, and his nickname, Rahmbo.

“Inside he had the baby’s name and Kelley’s name on the bottom. It was really cool. It’s not so much for the baby, it’s a little bit for me, but I thought it was such a thoughtful thing from a friend,” Rahm said. “It’s so simple and something I use and see all the time that I thought it was really, really thoughtful.”

Zurich Classic: Bettings odds | Tee times | Teams to watch

Despite the lack of preparation, Rahm managed to finish in a tie for fifth at the Masters, one of his eight top-10s in 12 starts this season, and enjoyed a week off on diaper duty, which could bode well for his title defense with teammate Ryan Palmer at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Or does it?

“I haven’t figured out the right balance to be able to spend the time on the golf course and obviously I went to Augusta with very little practice and last week I mean it’s definitely hard to leave the house now,” Rahm said. “It’s definitely really hard to leave and try to focus. So, I apologize in advance, buddy.”

Palmer, for one, didn’t seem the least bit concerned. By winning here in 2019 – the 2020 edition was one of 11 events canceled due to the global pandemic – the Tour veteran, who previously had paired with Jordan Spieth in this event, snapped a span of 3,388 days since his last victory at the 2010 Sony Open in Hawaii. It marked Palmer’s fourth career Tour title at the age of 42, and the three-stroke triumph was the largest margin of victory since the event converted to the team format in 2017.

The winning tandem kicked off their title defense in strong fashion on Tuesday dining at Desi Vega’s Steakhouse with New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis among the dinner party.

Palmer, who was runner-up at the Farmers Insurance Open in January, and Rahm meshed well in their debut, in part, because they play similar games.

“We like to see the ball go left-to-right for the most part, so I think it matches up really well,” Rahm said.

More: Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman’s walk-up music? The Mullet Song

At World No. 3, Rahm is the highest-ranked player in the field. It’s one of golf’s unwritten rules that the defending champion comes back to defend his title, but given the birth of his child so recently, Rahm would’ve been excused for bowing out this year. But whether he’s suffering from exhaustion or pangs of guilt of being far from home, Rahm is here to make a valiant attempt to defend the winner’s belts at a tournament that struck him as a fun one-off, right from the get-go.

“Growing up as a junior golfer in Spain we have plenty of opportunities to play events like this one or play with a partner and I thought it’s so unique, it was the first I ever seen on the PGA Tour that it was fun,” Rahm said. “It’s something that’s different, it’s appealing to me and it’s, you know, you get to experience different things on the golf course, you can rely on a partner, you get people going double-digits under par pretty easily, it’s just a really exciting week.”

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Zurich Classic: The Mullet Song will be Cameron Smith and Marc Leishman’s walk-up music

Cameron Smith’s mullet has been the talk of the PGA Tour for so long this season that it deserves its own song.

Cameron Smith’s mullet has been the talk of the PGA Tour for so long this season that it deserves its own song. But until someone puts words to music (we’re thinking of you, Sam Harrop), we’ll just have to make do with Jay Powell’s “The Mullet Song.”

For that, we have fellow Aussie Marc Leishman to thank. Someone had to come up with a good walk-up tune for the first tee at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans this week, and Leishman delivered.

“He’s already entered it. I didn’t even get a choice,” Smith explained. “We’re going to be rocking that going to the first tee.”

How did Leishman settle on “The Mullet Song?” He googled “mullet songs” and the rest as they say is history.

“You got to try and make it fun and embrace it and I think we’ll do that and yeah try and enjoy ourselves, get the day started off on the right foot and go from there,” Leishman said.

Smith has embraced his office-in-the-front, party-in-the-back hairdo like few before him. (Charley Hoffman and Pat Perez jump to mind of those who have rocked it in the past.)

“Everyone has a laugh. I know Leish has a laugh at it and he picks on me sometimes about it, but no, it’s good. I love it,” Smith said.

The Smith-Leishman pairing in the two-man team format for the Zurich Classic falls into the category of “no brainer,” as these close friends play most of their practice rounds together anyway. They previously teamed up in the 2018 World Cup in their native Melbourne, where they finished tied for second and also teamed together Down Under in the Presidents Cup in 2019. What’s the secret to their partnership? Leishman said it helps having a short-game savant like Smith to back him up if he misses a green while Smith said it’s the back-and-forth banter.

“We’re always in each other’s ear just playing around and maybe saying some stuff that gets us fired up and gets us ready to go,” Smith said.

That’s what friends do and these pals are sharing a house this week, which means plenty of time both on and off the course, which is great if they play well, but what if they don’t?

“I might not talk to him for a few hours,” Leishman said.

“I’ll have to get a hotel for the night,” Smith cracked.

More likely, they will be cracking open a few beers to celebrate all the birdies they are bound to make. The team format requires a certain amount of strategizing ahead of time and Leishman noted that his “stats guy” ran the numbers and recommended that he tee off first on the odd holes despite the fact that Smith teed off on the odd holes when he won this event in 2017.

“It will let Cam hit more drivers, I’ll hit more iron shots and I feel like that will play into both of our strengths,” Leishman said.

Cameron Smith Marc Leishman
Marc Leishman and Cameron Smith update their scorecards going to 8th hole during the 2021 QBE Shootout at the Tiburon Golf Club in Naples, Florida. (Photo: Chris Tilley/Naples Daily News via USA TODAY Network)

Smith holed the winning putt in a playoff at TPC Louisiana in 2017 to capture his first PGA Tour title with Jonas Blixt and it triggered a strong run of golf for Smith. A win with another good pal this week might have big implications for him too.

“I told the missus that I would cut it if I won, but I don’t know, it’s been, I mean everyone loves it,” he said. “So, I don’t know, might hang around for longer than I anticipated.”

But if it winds up on the chop block, they can always defend next year with Billy Ray Cyrus’s “I want my mullet back,” as their walk-up music.

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Zurich Classic: The budding bromance of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele comes to the Big Easy

Cantlay and Schauffele are the top-ranked tandem in the 80 two-man team field this week in New Orleans.

Ever since the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January, Patrick Cantlay has been hounding his pal Xander Schauffele to partner with him at this week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. To hear Schauffele tell it, he enjoyed playing the role of hard to get, especially as Cantlay put on the full-court press with members of his team, including instructor Jamie Mulligan and manager Preston Valder, sending text messages on Cantlay’s behalf.

“I was kind of messing with Pat,” Schauffele conceded. “I had a little inside game with Jamie to lead Pat on for a few months here, even though I was kind of committing to playing anyways.”

These two SoCal natives have known each for a long time, with Schauffele still remembering the time in 2012 when he got schooled by Cantlay at a college tournament at CordeValle when Cantlay was the top-ranked amateur in the country for UCLA and Schauffele a freshman at Long Beach State (before transferring to San Diego State University).

“My coach at the time at Long Beach wanted me to play with the top player in the world to kind of compare and Pat shot a swift little 65 there and I think I shot 78,” Schauffele recalled.

His takeaway from that first encounter?

“He was way better than me and I needed to get better at golf,” Schauffele said. “I’ve come a long way here.”

Indeed, he has. Schauffele couldn’t remember whether he was the last one into the Zurich Classic field in 2017 or not, but he was “auto-paired” with journeyman pro Tag Ridings.

“I was just happy at that point in my rookie year to get in,” Schauffele said.

With Cantlay, they form the highest-ranked team in the field this week with both players in the top-10 of the official World Golf Ranking (Schauffele No. 5, Cantlay No. 10). The budding bromance between Cantlay and Schauffele ignited at the 2019 Presidents Cup in Australia when they bonded playing gin on the flight and ended up as partners in all four of the team sessions of the international biennial competition. Ever since, they’ve become regular practice-round partners.

“It’s very competitive, and we feel like when we play against each other it sort of sharpens ourselves for the best week possible,” Schauffele explained. “We know our games inside out, I think that will give us an advantage.”

There is much to like about their game and where they could be headed. Schauffele is coming off a tie for second at the Masters while Cantlay has a victory at the Zozo Championship in October and runner-up at the American Express in January before cooling off with missed cuts in consecutive events. But their futures both appear so bright they ought to wear sunglasses at night.

“You all seem to write articles saying that we’re under the radar or unsung or whatever, you guys have better adjectives for that,” Cantlay said.

When asked which player was funnier, Schauffele answered first: “Both rather dry, I would say. I’m definitely more sarcastic than Pat is. Pat is much more linear than I am.”

“We have fun though,” Cantlay said. “We think about life and golf very similarly. We each have a little different strengths in our golf game, but all in all I think we’re both all around pretty solid tee to green and on the green. So nothing too flashy about what we do.”

This week may end up being a nothing-too-flashy test run for a starring role on Team USA at the Ryder Cup in late September. It hasn’t gone unnoticed by U.S. team captain Steve Stricker that they could be a reliable pairing at Whistling Straits and for years of team competitions to come. But making a good impression with Stricker isn’t foremost on their mind this week.

“He knows that I would love to play with Pat and vice versa,” Schauffele said. “It’s a fun week that we don’t get to do very often. Yes, it’s a Ryder Cup year, but I think it’s moreso Pat and I are buddies and we’re definitely trying to win this golf tournament.”

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Zurich Classic: Tony Finau and Cameron Champ ready to ‘send it’

Big hitters Cameron Champ and Tony Finau are ready to put on a show at the Zurich Classic.

Numbers lie.

For further proof look no further than the driving distance leaders on the PGA Tour, which say that Tony Finau ranks No. 30 this season. Big Tony laughed at the thought that 29 of his fellow Tour pros can poke it past him.

“The driving distance stat, to me, just seems, it doesn’t mean as much to me maybe as it does to some other guys, as far as their ego,” he said. “I think your scoring average and winning golf tournaments is ultimately why we’re out here and I’ve played a lot of high-level golf and I’m more interested in that, I think, than the whole distance debate deal.”

But to hear Finau tell it, there is at least one pro who can bomb it past him: Cameron Champ, his partner in this week’s two-man team event at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, who ranks third at 318 yards behind only Wyndham Clark and Bryson DeChambeau. When Finau and Champ were asked who was longer, neither pointed at himself.

“He’s pointing at the wrong guy,” Finau said.

“No, no,” said Champ, who explained why Finau’s “puny” average driving distance of 305 yards doesn’t tell the full story of his prodigious length. “As people notice, he takes it back a little bit shorter than normal, but when he takes it back full, he is the longest on Tour.”

Finau, who has cracked the 200-mph barrier, didn’t disagree, while paying another compliment to his partner: “I will say, though, at the high speeds, Cameron knows where it’s going a lot more often than I do. I might have, maybe a little bit more on the take. I still don’t know. He can get it up in the 200s as well, but he probably has a better idea where it’s going at that speed. I have a lot of speed but not quite sure where it’s going.”

What Team Finau-Champ knows is they’ve adopted the name “Team Send It,” and they bring a second gear to TPC Louisiana that their opponents in the 80-man field of two-person teams better respect.

“In the best ball, there’s no reason for me to hold back on certain holes where Cameron has got it out there in the middle of the fairway,” Finau said. “So, I’ll definitely crank up my ball speed on a few shots this week. I’m sure we’ll be sending some good drives this week, no doubt.”

Count Justin Rose among those who wouldn’t be surprised if Finau broke out of his winless drought at the team event much the way Ryan Palmer did in 2019 with partner Jon Rahm.

“I’ve followed Cameron’s career quite closely just based on (instructor) Sean Foley, and it looks like he’s beginning to play really nicely,” Rose said. “Obviously, Tony is in great form. The way both those guys hit the ball if they get on half a streak around here that could be a really tough team to beat just based on the weapons that they have.”

The Zurich Classic, which dates to 1938, switched to a team format in 2017, and for some, securing a partner has been akin to finding a prom date. Asked in that inaugural year to explain in up to three words why he had chosen Luke Donald as his partner, Jamie Lovemark counted on his hand while saying, “Des-per-ation.”

Finau and Champ formed a friendship through their manager, Wasserman’s Chris Armstrong, and paired together at the QBE Shootout in December, finishing in a tie for fifth. The team format brings a different strategy and intrigue to the decision-making process, which explains why so many players are talking about the importance of team chemistry and complementing each other’s game.

“I think it’s important,” Finau said, “to have some type of relationship with your partner beforehand so he knows you’re trying your best and I know he’s trying his best and a lot of times that just helps take the pressure off.”

There are decisions still to be made such as where to enjoy the famed grilled oysters to be had in the Big Easy – Acme’s, Drago’s or both – and who will tee off on the even and odd holes during the alternate-shot rounds, but one decision has been made: their walk-up music for the first tee will be “Do Whatcha Wanna,” by the Rebirth Brand Band of New Orleans.

“We’re going to have a little bit of jazz music, actually, just to kind of pay homage to New Orleans,” Finau said. “So we’re going to have a local band music playing in the background. I thought that would be pretty cool for our squad.”

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