PGA Preview – Zurich Classic of New Orleans

The PGA heads to New Orleans this week for the Zurich Classic of New Orleans at TPC of Louisiana. With more of golf’s big names taking a pass on this event that leaves golf betting fans with a long list of lesser-known names to go through and possibly luck out a big payout.

Last year at TPC of Louisiana Andres Romero put together back-to-back solid rounds on the weekend to claim his first-career PGA Tour win. Romero finished the tournament 14-under par, which gave him a one-stroke victory over Peter Lonard. Tim Wilkinson finished two stokes back at -12, while there was a logjam at 10-under with Padraig Harrington, Woody Austin, and Nicholas Thompson all tied for fourth.

Romero returns to TPC of Louisiana this week to try and repeat as champion, but don’t expect to see him near the top of the golf odds. Romero’s best finish this season was tying for third at the Northern Trust Open, but that was back in February. Since then his best finish was tying for 33rd at the WGC-Match Play Championship and he’s missed the cut in two of his last four tournaments.

The favorite this week will most likely be Masters runner-up Kenny Perry. Out of the current Top 10 ranked golfers in the world Perry is the only one committed to play in Louisiana this week. It will be Perry’s first tournament since his choke at Augusta, so it will be interesting to see how he bounces back from that disappointment.

Last week’s PGA event was the Verizon Heritage, which was completely dominated by Brian Gay. In true Tiger Woods fashion Gay bested his closest opponent by double-digit strokes after shooting 20-under par. That was 10 strokes better than both Luke Donald and Briny Baird, who tied for second. Gay won’t go for another win in Louisiana this week and neither will Donald or Baird, so the top finishers from the Verizon also playing this week will be Todd Hamilton and Lee Janzen, who tied for fourth at nine-under par.

Counting Romero the last four winners of the Zurich Classic will all be returning to Louisiana this week in search of another title. They include 2007 champ Nick Watney, 2006 winner Chris Couch (who actually won at English Town Golf and Country Club due to Hurricane Katrina damage at TPC of Louisiana), and 2005 champ Tim Petrovic.