The PGA Tour did no favors for the Zurich Classic this year.
By sandwiching the tournament between a series of major and signature events on the Tour’s busy spring schedule, they made life difficult for tournament officials, trying to lure top players to compete in New Orleans.
Many Tour stars are electing to bypass the Zurich this year to take a much-needed break from competition rather than compete for six consecutive weeks from early April to mid-May.
Consequently, the field will not be as star-studded as past years, said Steve Worthy, the CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, the local organizing body that operates the tournament for the PGA Tour.
“It’s a tough deal,” Worthy said. “It would be disingenuous of me to stand here in front of you and tell you it’s not going to have an impact on our field. It will. It’s a challenge. It won’t be everything that it’s been, but we’re still going to have a lot of names that you recognize and still hoping to pull off a few others that are going to be difference-makers.”
PGA Tour officials have indicated to Worthy and Zurich officials that the schedule sandwich is a one-off and will not be repeated next year.
While Worthy still expects to land a few big names to headline the 160-man field, he said the depth of elite talent will not be as strong because of the unavoidable attrition.
The team of Ben Griffin and Andrew Novak will return to defend its title. Shane Lowery and Brooks Koepka are also among the top players who could commit to the field in the weeks ahead. Tournament officials expect to announce more commitments in the days and weeks ahead of the April 23-26 event.
But many of their elite peers have balked or decided to skip the New Orleans stop because of its inconvenient spot in the schedule: after the Masters and RBC Heritage in early April and before the Cadillac, Truist and PGA championships in May.
“I’m not too worried about playing seven (weeks) in a row,” said Griffin, who is ranked No. 16 in the latest World Golf Rankings. “I played 13 in a row to start the year last year, and especially with the Zurich being a more laid-back, relaxing, fun week.”
Griffin and Novak broke through for their first PGA Tour wins at the Zurich last year, carding a score of 28-under-par 260 to edge runners-up Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard by one stroke.
Griffin went on to win two more events and land a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team, while finishing the year at No. 8 in the World Golf Rankings.
“Both Ben and Andrew enjoyed breakthrough seasons, including their victory here,” Worthy said. “We are excited to watch them build on their team success and see if they can become the first repeat winners since we launched our team format in 2017.”
Despite the tough timing of this year’s Zurich, Novak and Griffin said the tournament remains one of their favorite events on Tour, citing its unique team format and award-winning hospitality
“This is a very busy part of our schedule,” said Novak, who is ranked 49th after his recent 55th-place finish at the Valspar Championship. “… I cannot stress to you how nice it’s going to be on Thursday (at the Zurich) to pick my ball up and let Ben finish out the hole for me. I’ll be getting punched in the face repeatedly for a few weeks (on Tour), so it is going to be really nice to just have a team event in there and just kind of change the pace up a little bit from what we’ve got going week in, week out.”
Off the course, officials expect another successful year for the tournament, which has grown in popularity since taking on Zurich as a title sponsor in 2005 and moving to a team format in 2017. Corporate sponsorships remain strong, and the inventory of suite rentals and pro-am entries are again sold out, Worthy said.
The presence of a LIV Golf event in the city has also had little effect on the Zurich, Worthy said. LIV Golf Louisiana will be held June 25-28 at Bayou Oaks golf course at City Park.
“We’ve been focused on us, and it really hasn’t been a factor,” Worthy said.