Backing Canadian contingent at halfway point of Zurich Classic

At the halfway point of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, we have a four-way tie for first place with only five shots separating the teams at the top of the leaderboard from the teams at the bottom.

The marquee team and one of the shorter-priced pre-tournament favorites (+800) of Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy are one of those teams tied for the lead at 13-under after firing a 2-under round of 70 in Friday's Foursomes format. Joining the two Irishmen are the duos Davis Thompson and Andrew Novak, Aaron Rai and David Lipsky and Ryan Brehm and Mark Hubbard - all at 13-under after two rounds.

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, who won this event two years ago, shot the low round of the day on Friday - a 67. It was 10 shots better than the worst rounds of the day, as four different teams shot 77 at TPC Louisiana in the more difficult format. Schauffele and Cantlay are one shot off the lead and are linked to another five teams, all at 12-under par, including a pair of Canadian duos, Nick Taylor and Adam Hadwin and Corey Conners and Taylor Pendrith. Exactly half of the original field made the cut, with 40 teams set to decide this championship over the next two rounds.

Rounds 2 and 4 always go a long way in determining a winner at the Zurich Classic, it seems. Foursomes (alternate shot) is a far more challenging format for team play than is Four-ball (best ball), which is featured in the opening round and in Round 3, scheduled for Saturday.

Updated odds to win Zurich Classic (via BetMGM Sportsbook)

• +275: Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry
• +350: Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele
• +1000: Davis Thompson/Andrew Novak
• +1100: Nick Taylor/Adam Hadwin
• +1200: Corey Conners/Taylor Pendrith
• +1400: Aaron Rai/David Lipsky
• +1600: Ryan Brehm/Mark Hubbard

Foursomes (alternate shot) is really the crux of the pre-tournament handicap, as it truly combines the two players into one unit. One bad shot by either player can ruin a hole. In Four-balls, Player A might be able to bail out Player B by making birdie while Player B may have dumped their ball into the water - or something else that leads to a poor score. Only Player A's birdie shows up on the scorecard as the team's score for that hole.

Multiple rounds of 61 were shot on Thursday's opening round in the Four-ball format. Out of 80 teams, every recorded round was under-par on Thursday, further illustrating the difference in difficulty between the two formats.

So, we head to the weekend with one more day of each of the two formats to be completed. Again, Saturday's round will be back to Four-ball and then back to Foursomes on Sunday. There are nine different teams at 8-under through two rounds, making up the bottom end of the leaderboard, including the defending champs (Davis Riley and Nick Hardy) along with one of the shorter-priced pre-tournament pairings (Collin Morikawa and Kurt Kitayama). And I don't really believe anyone is out of this thing just yet. In 2023, Riley and Hardy shot 65 on Sunday in the Foursomes arrangement to win. Taylor and Hadwin fired a 63 to finish second. The average winning score over the prior six editions of this team format at the Zurich Classic is better than 25-under par. A 62 on Saturday, followed by a 65 on Sunday, gets any one of these teams at 8-under to 25-under for the tournament.

While the outcome still may be wide-open, who is it that we want to back and who is it that we want to go against going into the weekend in The Big Easy?

Draws

There really are probably half a dozen teams that I have my eye on as solid candidates to go on and win. I believe Thompson/Novak is a very competitive team at +1000. Pre-tournament, I played Echavarria/Greyserman, and I feel they are still live, two shots back and listed at +5000. But I am going to go all in on the Canadian entry.

Taylor/Hadwin (+1100)

I also played last year’s runners-up pre-tournament, and I like where they stand currently. A lot has been made about prepping for the Presidents Cup, and so far, Hadwin and Taylor seem dialed in to that storyline. From the get-go, I liked this team's chemistry. The two have known one another since childhood and were even roommates some time ago. I like their complimentary skill sets - Taylor being the ball-striker and Hadwin being the owner of a great short game. It doesn't hurt that Taylor, as a bonus, also happens to rank 20th in this field for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass) over the last 36 rounds. Finally, I really like each player's current form. Taylor was 12th at Bay Hill last month and won in Phoenix back in February. Hadwin already has three top-six finishes this season. Coming that close to winning here last year, I believe this team has a good feel for this event, these formats, and how to execute a winning plan down the stretch.

Conners/Pendrith (+1200)

Pendrith began his 2024 season on a roll with top-10 finishes at the Sony Open and the Farmers Insurance Open. He then hit the skids, missing the cut in five of his next six starts. But he found his stride again last week, finishing 11th at the Corales Puntacana Championship. His playing partner, Conners, is yet to miss a cut this season. This is another tandem in which I like the complementary skill sets. Pendrith is a bomber off the tee. Conners is one of the finest ball-strikers in the sport - and to top it off, Pendrith can roll the rock, ranking 22nd on TOUR in SG: Putting - which also helps explain his ranking sixth in this field over the last 36 rounds for Birdies or Better Gained.

Both of these Canadian batteries have especially strong combinations of skills that really bolster them as powerful units. I'm sure Presidents Cup Captain Mike Weir is smiling.

Fade

Brehm/Hubbard (+1600)

This is really a fade of Brehm, and not so much Hubbard. Hubbard is a player who profiled quite well in my stats this week but honestly, Brehm barely even made the list. Over the last 36 rounds, he only cracks the top 136 in the rankings in three categories - out of 160 players. Brehm is currently ranked 517th in the OWGR. He's missed seven cuts this season. In the four events in which he's made it to the weekend, only once has he finished better than 53rd. How did they get into a share of the lead then? As I mentioned, Hubbard made sense to me this week - and Brehm, well, he can putt. Hubbard has always been a great ball-striker and is yet to miss a cut this season, but he has traditionally not been a great putter and has missed many on Sundays when in contention. Brehm's putting is certainly the compliment that Hubbard needs from a playing partner, but over four rounds, I am not betting that Hubbard can continue to shoulder most of this load.

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