The PGA Tour is heading to the New Orleans area this week for the 2018 Zurich Classic. It's a two-man format, which features two rounds each of foursome and four-ball competition. The Zurich Classic, which tees off Thursday morning, is the only team event on the PGA Tour.
Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson are the Vegas favorites at 8-1, followed closely by Bud Cauley and Justin Thomas at 10-1 and 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed and playing partner Patrick Cantlay at 11-1.
Before you make any bets or enter a daily fantasy golf tournament on DraftKings or FanDuel, you'll want to hear what the team at SportsLine has to say.
SportsLine's prediction model, built by DFS pro Mike McClure, nailed the 2018 Masters, predicting the career-defining victory for Reed entering the weekend. It also nailed the Masters and U.S. Open last year, calling wins for Sergio Garcia and Brooks Koepka entering the weekend. Then, it was all over Jordan Spieth at the British Open from the start and predicted the 24-year-old's third major victory.
Anyone who has followed the model is way up.
Now that the field for the Zurich Classic is locked, SportsLine simulated the event 10,000 times and the results were surprising.
One huge surprise the model is calling for at the Zurich Classic this week: Charley Hoffman and Nick Watney, who are going off at 33-1 in the latest odds, team up to make a strong charge for the title in this event.
Hoffman didn't play well last week, but has two top-10 finishes at the QBE Shootout and Hero World Challenge this season. Watney, meanwhile, comes into this event with some confidence after shooting a 5-under at the Valero Texas Open and finishing in the top 20 for the first time this season. The Hoffman-Watney duo is a target for anyone looking for a big payday
Another surprise: Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt, the defending champions of this event, stumble this week and finish outside the top 10.
Also, the model says three additional teams with odds of 22-1 or longer will make a deep run at the Zurich Classic title. Anyone who bets on these underdogs could hit it big.
So who wins the 2018 Zurich Classic? And which long shots stun the golfing world? Check out the updated odds below and visit SportsLine now to see the full Zurich Classic projected leaderboard from the model that has nailed four of the last five majors heading into the weekend, and find out.
Rose/Stenson 8-1
Cauley/Thomas 10-1
Cantlay/Reed 11-1
Palmer/Spieth 14-1
Waston/Kuchar 14-1
Cabrera Bello/Garcia 20-1
Bryan/Rahm 22-1
O'Hair/Walker 22-1
McDowell/Poulter 25-1
Fleetwood/Paisley 28-1
Day/Ruffels 33-1
Holmes/Snedeker 33-1
Berger/Woodland 33-1
Hoffman/Watney 33-1
Brown/Kisner 33-1
Blixt-Smith 33-1
