Weekly Recap: A Waltz to Victory

The Zurich Class is a fun change of pace midway through the grind of an 11-month PGA Tour season, even though this year's tournament lacked any real drama. The team of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele, after opening with a record-setting 59 in the best ball format, went wire-to-wire en route to a record-setting 29-under-par winning score. Sam Burns-Billy Horschel finished two strokes back in second place.

It's tough to glean much from what transpired, at least initially and maybe not at all. Cantlay had been playing well just about all year while Schauffele had shown some slippage, falling out of the top 10 of the Official World Golf Ranking. As a reminder, FedExCup points are doled out for the Zurich Classic but no world-rankings points. So Schauffele remains 12th in the OWGR. In fact, Cantlay lost ground, slipping from fourth to fifth while Cameron Smith moved up to a career-best No. 4.

Here's what we meant by initially. Last year, Burns and Horschel teamed for the first time. They finished fourth. Burns arrived ranked about 90th in the world and had missed three of his past four cuts, looking a bit lost after kicking away the Genesis Invitational a couple of months earlier. But after just one week alongside the veteran Horschel, Burns was transformed. He won the Valspar Championship the very next week for his first career title and then was runner-up in his next start at the Byron Nelson. Burns has won two more times since to soar up to 11th in the world.

Can we prove definitively that Burns became a better golfer after spending a week acting like a sponge and soaking up all that Horschel had to offer? Of course not. But so much can happen during Zurich week that can't be quantified.  Especially when a younger player is paired with a veteran, or maybe even when two friends get to spend the week by each other's side.

We don't really expect to see any obvious boost for the two teams at the top. After all, they were all already pretty elite to begin with. Maybe Schauffele can take away some renewed confidence after a slow start to 2022. He technically can say that his long winless drought on the PGA Tour -- dating back to from the 2019 Tournament of Champions -- is now over. But his stroke play schneid continues. He's also had a couple of victories in the eyes of the OWGR, who counted his gold medal in the Olympics and also his low-72 score at the 2020 TOUR Championship.

It will be interesting to see if the golfers making up the next handful of places on the leaderboard get any boost from their results. It certainly will go a long way in helping some of them finish the regular season in the top 125 and keep their Tour card for next season.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Doc Redman-Sam Ryder
Redman has the loftier pedigree but neither guy has made much of a dent on Tour. Ryder likely will always be a journeyman, but we'll see whether there is bounce that the 24-year-old Redman gets from this solo third. If nothing else, Redman moved from 153rd in the FedExCup Standings to 119th, and that's no small thing for a young guy who's Tour status is paramount. Ryder is now ranked 74th in the standings and this past week pretty much secured his card for next season.

Branden Grace-Garrick Higgo
Here's another case of a veteran paired with a younger guy, in this case South African compatriots, that had a good week at the Zurich as part of a six-way tie for fourth. The 33-year-old Grace does not have the stature in terms of a world ranking like Horschel did with Burns a year ago -- he was ranked just outside the top 100 entering the week -- but he's a former top-10 golfer and is surely looked up to by the younger golfers in South Africa. Since the 22-year-old Higgo's surprise win at the Palmetto Championship about a year ago moved him into the top 40 in the world, his game has plummeted and he arrived in New Orleans with five straight missed cuts and a ranking that had fallen outside the top 90. So let's watch Higgo in his next few starts.

David Lipsky-Aaron Rai
Lipsky is 33, Rai 27. Both are PGA Tour rookies though it's fair to say that only one of them -- Rai -- is on the way up.  The Englishman entered the week among the top 100 in standings with four top-25s and one top-10. Now, he's at No. 77 and likely secure for next season. At 97th, Lipsky still has work to do.

Keegan Bradley-Brendan Steele
These good friends have played together before and have gone a long way in disproving the notion that at least one of the two guys in a team must be a good putter. They finished fourth last year and tied for fourth this year, with Bradley making a longish 13-footer for birdie on No. 18. Bradley is up to 42nd in the standings and Steele is 52nd, so both of them can now have real designs on getting deep into the playoffs in a few months.

Taylor Moore-Matthew NeSmith
As part of the big tie for fourth, Moore moved to 79th in the standings, securing his status for next season. NeSmith was likely already there, but he now has higher aspirations, as he sits 54th in the standings.

Justin Lower-Dylan Wu
These two guys were far back, but their tie for fourth moved them close to the top 150, which has significant value for those who miss the top 125. Lower is currently 154th and Wu is 158th.

Shane Lowry-Ian Poulter
These two friends finished solo 13th. For Lowry, it's another top-15 in a season filled with them. For the aging Poulter, it moved him to 151st in the standings, so he still has lots of work to do to keep his Tour card.

Justin Rose-Henrik Stenson
These two good buds have played all five editions of the team Zurich together, and they have played well almost every time. They tied for 14th. That moved Rose to 113th in the standings. Stenson remains far back at 197th.

Ryan Palmer-Scottie Scheffler
Well, Scheffler didn't win. But of course that means nothing. The two Texans tied for 18th -- good but not great -- and Scheffler should still head into the PGA Championship next month as the betting favorite.

Marc Leishman-Cameron Smith
The defending champions never got into the conversation this year and wound up tied for 21st. Completely unrelated to this tournament, Smith moved to a career-high No. 4 in the world rankings.

Viktor Hovland-Collin Morikawa
This was the first ever pairing of top-5 golfers in the five years since the Zurich became a team event. But as is often the case, chemistry matters most. We're not saying there wasn't chemistry between Hovland and Morikawa, but something was obviously off. They tied for 29th.

Bill Haas-Jay Haas
Unfortunately for Bill, the only noteworthiness here is about Jay. The elder Haas, at 68, became the oldest golfer ever to make a cut in a PGA Tour event -- and he had to sink a putt from four and a half feet on the 18th hole Friday to make it happen. That was after Bill left his birdie putt short. The father and son Haases tied for 29th.