I do not come to be the turd in the punch bowl. The new format at the Zurich Classic will be cool. It’s a welcome change for an event that had little juice on a PGA Tour that could use a deviation from the standard 72-hole stroke play tournament.
The format, just as a refresher, features two-man teams playing alternate shot on Thursday and Saturday, and best ball on Friday and Sunday (there will be a cut after two rounds, too). The partnerships range from the natural and powerful to the strange and potentially toxic (players got to choose their partners).
It will be a fun event to watch. There will be many articles and tweets written about how great it is and exasperation over why it hadn’t been done sooner or should be done more often at even more events. That’s an easy and correct and fine opinion to have. But here are a few drawbacks about the new format to consider this week:
Why the Zurich?
It’s good to have a format change on the PGA Tour schedule. The fans, and many players, want it. But Tour officials had to catch a bit of hell as soon as the announcement of the new two-man game came out last year.
I don’t think there’s a slippery slope concern here as others look for favorable treatment, it’s just ... Why does the Zurich Classic get to be the one to mix it up and in turn, generate a pile of publicity and draw a much deeper field? The PGA Tour going forward with this format change is a godsend for a lower-tier event that defined “meh” in recent years. There’s a reason the biggest hook for the coverage was always “NOLA! Food! Here’s a shot of some more beignets!”
The change impacts events around the Zurich, which fall in this quiet stretch between the Masters and The Players before the real busy summer sprint begins. The Valero Texas Open, which is another lower tier event, became an even easier pass for bigger names now adding New Orleans to the schedule. The same could be true of next week’s Wells Fargo, which historically attracts a strong field but may need to grind a bit this year with the venue change. Players go to that event to play the big boy Quail Hollow, which won’t be hosting this year’s Wells Fargo because they have the PGA Championship in August. Putting a beefed-up Zurich the preceding week may add another hurdle
A few years back, I met with some folks who organized and ran the event at Colonial (then known as the Crowne Plaza Invitational). I asked what was one of their biggest challenges and the easy and quick answer was working with the Tour on a schedule date — they were opposite the Euro Tour’s BMW PGA at Wentworth, which drained some of the better Euro regulars usually playing in the States, and preceded the Memorial, Jack Nicklaus’ event that always drew the biggest names and made Colonial an easier off week. These tournament organizers and title sponsors are always looking for an edge and nipping at the Tour’s heels.
Colonial is a long-running event that may have no interest in messing with its format or changing from an invitational. But there are a dozen or more like it fighting for elbow room and an identity on a crowded schedule. When the Zurich Classic got this format change boost, I have to imagine several tournament reps and title sponsors bristled and/or promptly called the Tour wondering why they weren’t the ones to be blessed by the suits in Ponte Vedra?
Will the Tour do other things to appease some of these other tourneys who want to stand out on the schedule? Or move this two-man format around to other stops? It’s a big win for the fans but has to be a delicate challenge for the PGA Tour, especially with the field this year’s Zurich has already drawn and all the buzz going into what used to be a sleepy tournament (13 of the top 30 in the world rankings are here this year — there were three last year).
Unnatural pairings and Web Tour screwjobs
There are some natural two-man pairings. There are some that ... are not. It’s easy to get caught up in the headliners who got all the hype these last few months and will get all the TV coverage this week. But this is still a full field event that forced some players down the world rankings to scramble and buddy up with someone else in the event.
We’ve got a Bryson DeChambeau and Rory Sabbatini duo — two guys who played a bit in the Web playoffs last year and maybe became friends but give off a “last two guys on the playground that no one wanted to partner with” vibe. There’s a random-ass Beef Johnston and Kyle Reifers pairing. Grayson Murray and Cameron Percy seems a little odd, too. It may not matter to the wider audience just watching for Jason Day and Rickie Fowler fist-bumping and playing together, but down the board is where this format may be less than ideal.
There’s also the matter of the format drawing a deeper field and some guys who play the Zurich regularly bringing in partners who might usually skip this event. The field filled up fast at a place that’s often an opportunity for players with lesser status or priority.
Impact of Zurich format change: with elevated interest, @BradFritsch (32 of 50 in Web grad category) 1st alt. Last year all Web guys got in.
— Will Gray (@WillGrayGC) April 25, 2017
No slight at you. They whiffed on eligibility. Merit isn't considered. I guess I should have better friends! https://t.co/rpMpxASTDt
— Brad Fritsch (@BradFritsch) April 25, 2017
@TheBG_Show @TronCarterNLU @PGATOUR Great event if you have a close friend or relative in the field! Not as great if you're a web graduate!
— Scott Gardiner (@gards76) April 24, 2017
The Web Tour graduates may not be the superstar faces that the Tour is trying to promote, but it’s a good-ass tour loaded with talent that can play week-to-week in the big leagues. They just need opportunities. The mid-majors don’t get shots every week to do bigger things and the Zurich Classic was one of them.
The course
There are better courses on the PGA Tour than TPC Louisiana. I played there five years ago and do not really remember a thing about it other than it seemed unremarkable hole after hole. Granted, this was in the middle of a bachelor party where golf was just kind of crowbarred into a weekend in New Orleans and an LSU football game, but I still just took nothing memorable away from the place. Maybe it plays different and more enjoyable for the pros, although they did rate it among worst courses on Tour a few years back.
So yeah, I’d rather watch this new and exciting format on a better course with more character and recognizable holes.
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I’ll reiterate my disclaimer from the top that the two-man format at the Zurich Classic is a good thing, worth trying, and likely to succeed. You’ll hear and read that all week. The format will be enjoyable to watch and it has a lot of PGA Tour regulars hyped for a welcome change of pace. But it’s not a universally held stance and there are some negative impacts that may not be top of mind for a casual fan just tuning in to watch this funky new two-man game. It’s always a little more complicated.