Viktor Hovland and Kris Ventura head into the second round of the Zurich Classic tied for the lead with Brice Garnett and Scott Stallings. Team Norway turned in a round of 10-under 62, mostly due to Ventura. Ventura made seven birdies to go along with Hovland’s three. After starting slow, the duo went 9-under on their last 12 holes and will look to carry the momentum into Friday’s alternate shot format.
Garnett and Stallings used a more balanced approach compared to their counterparts at the top of the leaderboard. Each player made five birdies during Round 1. They perfected “ham and egging” it as whenever one was in trouble, the other was there to pick him up. While perfectly okay in best-ball, that type of play could come back to haunt them in alternate shot.
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Garnett and Stallings weren’t the only ones to make noise Friday afternoon. One player in particular rose above the rest. A week removed from storming Harbour Town in Round 1 of the RBC Heritage; Cameron Smith was at it again. Only this time, he brought his teammate, Marc Leishman, along for the ride. Leishman’s lone birdie of the day came at the par-5 8th with Smith already in tight with a look of his own. That was all the help that Smith needed as he carded six birdies and an eagle en route to a round of 9-under 63.
With alternate shot being the format for two of the three remaining rounds, ball-strikers should continue to rise to the top of the leaderboard. It was in alternate shot that Ryan Palmer and Jon Rahm separated themselves in 2019, and I’d expect something similar to unfold this year.
I’ll be honest, it’s rather difficult to decipher both the leaderboard and the odds board for a couple of reasons. The first being the lack of data that is available to us. Strokes Gained data is typically utilized to make informed decisions throughout the duration of a tournament. And the second being the changing of the playing formats. But we’ll make do with what we have as we head into Round 2.
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Updated Odds (via PointsBet Sportsbook):
+600: Marc Leishman/Cameron Smith
+700: Patrick Cantlay/Xander Schauffele
+900: Cameron Champ/Tony Finau, Ryan Palmer/Jon Rahm
+1000: Viktor Hovland/Kris Ventura
+1300: Sam Burns/Billy Horschel
+1400: Scottie Scheffler/Bubba Watson
+1600: Louis Oosthuizen/Charl Schwartzel
+2000: Brendan Steele/Keegan Bradley
+2500: Brice Garnett/Scott Stallings
+4000: Wyndham Clark/Erik van Rooyen, Tyrrell Hatton/Danny Willett, Henrik Stenson/Justin Rose
+5000: Dylan Frittelli/Kevin Streelman, Charley Hoffman/Nick Watney, Jason Kokrak/Pat Perez, Kyoung-Hoon Lee/Kyle Stanley
Round 2 Plays:
To Win: Talor Gooch/Max Homa (+6000)
As I said, going forward with in-tournament selections will be more difficult than usual. But after a 6-under 66 in the best-ball format on Thursday, I’m sticking with my pre-tournament sentiment when it comes to Gooch and Homa. Only now, we will be getting them at nearly double the number. That’s more than okay with me, as they are one of the better ball-striking tandems in the field and should hold an advantage heading into alternate-shot.
Sitting only four-strokes back of the lead, I love where Gooch and Homa have positioned themselves. Gooch finished the day hitting 13 greens in regulation, while Homa hit 12. Outside of scrambling on a few holes, their round of 6-under had the potential to be even lower. They’ll need to collectively start knocking in more putts if they want to gain some ground, but they’ve shown in the past that they are more than capable of doing so.
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