The Zurich Classic of New Orleans is slated to start in the coming week. A refreshing chapter in the book that is the PGA Tour, the Zurich Classic is renowned for its different format. The TPC at Avondale, Louisiana will play host to the team stroke play event.

The event will feature teams of two playing against each other. The first round will be a four-ball format, where the best score of the two balls will be counted while the second will feature an alternate shot format. The same is repeated for round 3 and 4. A breath of fresh air on the PGA Tour.

Let’s take a look at the pairs that are the betting favorites for this season.

Rory McIlroy/Shane Lowry – +370

Last year’s winners easily have the highest odds. Not just because they won last year.  Rory McIlroy has won three events on the PGA Tour this season. No one else has won more than one. The Northern Irish golfer has won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the PLAYERS and finally completed his career Grand Slam with an iconic victory at the Masters. An impressive winner’s profile. His presence alone can vault the pairing to the top of the betting lists. But Shane Lowry is no slouch either.

The Irish golfer has finished in the top 20 at 5 of the 9 events he has competed in. This includes a brilliant runner-up finish at Pebble Beach and a 7 placed finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. In terms of consistency there is no more duo that is more dangerous than these two Irish stalwarts and they are the easy runaway favorites.

Collin Morikawa/Kurt Kitayama – +1100

Another pairing that is returning for yet another year. Morikawa and Kitayama finished T23 last year, with a score of 18 under par. Both had experimented with different partners the year before, with Morikawa pairing alongside Max Homa and Kitayama with Taylor Montgomery.

Morikawa has had a very consistent 2025 PGA Tour season, having made the cut at all the tournaments he has competed in. In fact, he finished in the top 20 at all events but one, the RBC Heritage Open. He is also currently ranked 4 in the world. Kitayama on the other hand has had a testy season, missing 5 cuts of the 10 events he has played and has only dropped to 108 in the Official World Golf Rankings. It will be a tough tournament for the duo to maneuver around but their past experience would be a key factor in navigating the murky waters of the Zurich Classic.

JT Poston/Keith Mitchell – +1800

The first pairing on this list that hadn’t played last year together is the Poston and Mitchell pairing. Poston was absent for the event while Mitchell took the field with Joel Dahmen, finishing T28 with a score of 17 under par. Mitchell is coming off a strong showing at the Corales Puntacana Championship where he finished T2, losing out to Garrick Higgo by one stroke. His momentum is brilliant having shown steady progress with each event. In fact, he has finished in the top 20 of his last three events.

JT Poston is also coming off a good weekend at South Carolina having finished T11 at the RBC Heritage Open. He has shown a capacity to be unrelenting, having competed in 12 events on the Tour so far and making the cut at 11. The efficient Poston will be the ideal companion for the marauding Mitchell and the duo will be making a splash at Avondale this week.

Thomas Detry/ Robert MacIntyre – +1800

The Belgian Thomas Detry earned his first ever PGA Tour victory after a brilliant WM Phoenix Open. He has a bit of verve this season as he is also poised to make his Ryder Cup debut this season after overall impressive performances across the PGA Tour Circuit. Detry will partner with Robert MacIntyre with whom he finished T8 at the same event last year.

The 28-year-old Scottish golfer has had a mixed bag of results in the 2025 PGA Tour season. MacIntyre has two top 10 finishes, at the WM Phoenix Open(6) and the PLAYERS Championship(9). He also missed two crucial cuts at the Genesis Invitational and the recently concluded Masters. His and Detry’s prior experience on the same stage will prove to be a key factor when the event kicks off.

Wyndham Clark/Taylor Moore – +2700

Clark did not play last year, but Moore competed with Mathew Nesmith and missed the cut by just one stroke. This time with the 2023 US Open winner by his side, Moore could push for a prominent position on the leaderboard and maybe even the title. Clark is coming off a consistent run in the PGA Tour this season, having only missed one cut so far and registering four top 25 finishes in the ten events that he played.

Moore has also been fairly consistent, with just two missed cuts in nine events. He has also finished in the top 10 twice this season having finished T7 at the American Express and T9 at the WM Phoenix Open. The duo will be looking to throw a wrench in the works and try to clinch a much needed victory on the PGA Tour for both.

There are a few other choice pairings as well, with the likes of Aaron Rai and Sahith Theegala teaming up. Other notable pairings are the Fitzpatrick brothers, Matt and Alex, Akshay Bhatia and Carson Young, Tom Hoge and Billy Horschel, Andrew Novak and Ben Griffin and so on.

Who do you think is going to clinch the title at New Orleans in the coming week? Will it be one of the favorites or will another pair spring a surprise.