This week’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans has a really weak field, no trying to beat around the bush with that one. Our man Justin Rose, 1 time Card of the Week winner, is the only player ranked in the top 20 in the world, currently sitting at number 11. This is good news for T-Dubs since he won’t be losing his number one ranking this week while sitting at home with L-Vonn, but bad of the viewers who want to see players they know (but that’s a whole different issue about how to get players to come to these “bad” events). But since we like positivity here at GOTM, we’re going to tag this event as a way to watch the stars of the future be born!

The Course

ZCoNO is held at yet another TPC (tournament players club) course, this one aptly named TPC Louisiana. TPC courses are an interesting development recently. Everyone knows the original TPC course, Sawgrass (site of the upcoming Players Championship) and probably TPC Scottsdale with the 16th hole colosseum, but in fact there are 12 TPC courses on the PGA Tour schedule. This week’s course come in at number 45 on the GD list of best courses on tour. Not as bad as Valero a few weeks ago, but pretty shitty nonetheless. About 7,400 yards according to the courses website, and undoubtedly in good shape, it should be a good course for a PGA Tour event. Just don’t expect any amazing views.

The Players

I think the best comment I’ve read about the situation here is that Matt Kuchar should still be the favorite this week despite the fact that he isn’t in the field. There are some young guys who are trying to use this week as a springboard, but that’s mostly because this is one of the few tournaments they can get into since no one good is playing…

Why you should watch

New section here, and I think this week it’s of most importance. Honestly there isn’t much reason to watch if you like the big name players. With that said, it’s a PGA Tour event and it means a huge deal to whoever ends up winning. They still will make over a million dollars. They’ll get an invitation to next year’s Masters (because it’s never too early to think about the Masters). And because of this, the guys coming down the stretch will still be trying their hardest and the scores they shoot will reflect that. And effort like that is always worth watching.