Paulie’s Picks: 2025 Zurich Classic of New Orleans

The PGA Tour heads to the Bayou this week for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.

This fun, two-man team event is in stark contrast to the Masters and signature event at the RBC Heritage over the last two weeks. Players this week are often paired with a close friend and let loose a little bit, as there is much less pressure than a normal week on Tour. Whenever there is a different format, it creates difficulty for the sportsbooks to accurately price items for the week. That is true this week as teams will be playing four-ball in the first and third rounds and foursomes for rounds two and four. Let’s take a look at three teams that I think are mispriced for top 20s in this 80-team field:

Andrew Novak/Ben Griffin Top 20 +110

Novak and Griffin have had so many close calls with victory on the PGA Tour, which just keeps their valuation by the sportsbooks a bit lower than it should be. These are two of the better players in this field. Novak comes in off a playoff loss to Justin Thomas, which was his fourth top-three finish in the last six months. Griffin has 11 top-10 finishes in the last three years and is just waiting to get that monkey off his back with his first Tour win. I think this team has a very good chance to do that together this week. We have two consistent players who don’t really have many holes in their game and who both have an above-average birdie rate. I’ll be backing them to finish top 20 this week at +110.

Max Greyserman/Nico Echavarria Top 20 +150

This team paired together to finish fourth in 2024 when they both weren’t as good of players as they are now. Since last year, Echavarria has risen from 293rd to 50th in the world, fueled by a win at the Zozo Championship and narrow runner-up finishes at the RSM Classic and Sony Open. Similarly, Greyserman has gone from 138th to 44th thanks to runner-up finishes at the 3M Open, Wyndham Championship, and the Zozo. They are the No. 1-ranked team in putting in this field, so if this turns into a putting contest, watch out for this duo to contend once again.

Niklas Norgaard/Jesper Svensson Top 20 +150

This handicap is pretty simple: they make a lot of birdies. Svensson ranks third and Norgaard ranks sixth in birdies above expectation, so I have full confidence that they will be one of the best teams in the best-ball portion of this event. The question will be: can they hang on during alternate shot? I’ll gladly take my chances that they can manage respectable alternate shot rounds to help us cash a top-20 wager at +150.

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