Football
  • Home
  • News
  • Zurich Classic Preview And Tips: Sam Burns And Billy Horschel Ready To Challenge Firm Favourites

Zurich Classic preview and tips: Sam Burns and Billy Horschel ready to challenge firm favourites

Sam Burns wins 2023 WGC Dell Matchplay

The USPGA hosts its popular pairs event, the Zurich Classic, at TPC Louisiana, where Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele defend their title. Tipstrr golf pundit Martin Colwell takes a closer look.

A par 72 and 7,425 yards in length, the New Orleans course is punctuated with plenty of water hazards, while the bunkers tend to be on the large side and are cunningly positioned to catch errant shots.

The format is alternate days playing either fourball (ie better ball score) or foursome (ie alternate shots).

Let's cut straight to the chase, I like Sam Burns and Billy Horschel, who hold good each-way value if you can still get them at 14/1. 

Burns is coming into form again, winning the World Match Play Championship last month, and has been in contention on most recent Sundays. 

Horschel is a little off his game at present, but usually finds a way to raise his game for match-play formats and team-based scenarios.

Suggested bet: Burns/Horschel each-way in the Zurich Classic

The defending champions, Cantlay and Schauffele, are well clear on current form and also on official world golf rankings, meaning their prohibitive current odds of 3/1 are justified but offer little value.

Next in the market are Collin Morikawa and Max Homa, both of whom hail from Los Angeles and are keen Dodgers fans (look out for their specially made jerseys). Max is out of form at present, though.
Sung-Jae Im and Keith Mitchell are around 12/1, which is a more attractive price with Im earning top ten finishes in recent times without being able to win. Keith Mitchell did have a hot streak but that has cooled in recent weeks, which means the Kims, Tom and See Woo look an interesting, if inconsistent, pairing at 14/1.

Other pairings to consider:

Last week's winner Matt Fitzpatrick pairs up with his brother Alex this week, and although Alex has produced a few decent finishes on the DP World Tour he is way off the level of his older brother, and their outsider odds are a fair reflection of their chances, as the alternate-ball foursome format might expose the younger brother's shortcomings.
Nikolai Hojgaard has Thorbjorn Olesen as his partner this week, and they look an interesting pairing that could score low if both are on their games, and their 40/1 price looks about right.
Last but not least, we have an outsider pairing to consider this week - Ryan Palmer and Scott Piercy, both of whom have won this event with different partners in the past.
They are widely available at 80/1, and if the defending champions have an off week, they might just be involved as the rest of the field looks wide open.

Suggested bet: Palmer/Piercy each-way in the Zurich Classic

READ MORE: ISPS Handa Championship preview and tips: Christiaan Bezuidenhout a worthy favourite at decent odds

    More Articles