No Rory.
No problem.
The Zurich Classic is just fine, thank you.
The tournament might feature fewer A-listers than recent years, but it is not bereft of star power. Recognizable stars like Shane Lowry, Matt Fitzgerald and Brooks Koepka are on hand along with an array of lesser-known, ascending talents.
Plenty of stars will be in the 148-man field. Many are just stars of the future.
“You might not know some of the names in this tournament — but you will,” said Andrew Novak, who along with teammate Ben Griffin will try to defend his 2025 championship.
This year’s event tees off Thursday at the TPC Louisiana layout in Avondale. In addition to the $9.5 million in prize money, the winners split 400 FedExCup points.
Teams will play a four-ball or best-ball format in the first and third rounds Thursday and Saturday. The format for the second and final rounds Friday and Sunday will be alternate shot.
Rory McIlroy, the world’s No. 2-ranked player who teamed with Lowry to win the 2024 Zurich, chose to skip this year’s event after playing here the past two years. Many of his top 10-ranked peers did likewise in an effort to rest and prepare for upcoming PGA Tour signature events, the Cadillac and Truist Championships, and the PGA Championship.
“We knew there were going to be some challenges this year because of the schedule, but we are very pleased with the field,” said Steve Worthy, the CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, which operates the tournament for the PGA Tour. “Considering the circumstances, knowing that we had some challenges, it’s probably as good a field as I could have expected.”
Before its recent run of big-name champions, the Zurich was known as a launching pad for PGA careers. Nick Watney, Jason Dufner, Billy Horschel and Cameron Smith all scored their first PGA Tour wins here before embarking on successful careers. That figures to be the case again this year, with so many top 20 players electing to bypass the event to conserve
Likewise, Griffin was a relative unknown before winning last year’s Zurich. His game took off after New Orleans, and he became one of the hottest and most successful players on Tour, winning two more events and becoming a finalist for the PGA Tour Player of the Year.
“Just because there might not be every single guy that’s in the top 20 in the world here doesn’t mean that it’s going to be a gimme week for a top pair like me and Andrew,” Griffin said. “It’s still a very strong field. Going into this tournament last year I wasn’t talking to any media and look at me now. There’s a lot of horses in the race. Everyone that’s earned their way into the field has just the same amount of chance of winning as anyone else.”
Added Novak: “There’s some kids playing in this tournament that you better get to learn their names sooner rather than later.”
Among them:
Michael Brennan and Johnny Keefer: Brennan, 24, finished in the top 25 at the Masters and won his the 2025 Bank of Utah Championship in his PGA Tour appearance. Keefer, 25, won three times on the Korn Ferry Tour last year.
Michael Thorbjornsen and Karl Vilips: Thorbjornsen, 24, played in the 2019 U.S. Open at the age of 17 and tied for third at the Phoenix Open in February.
Marco Penge and Matt Wallace: Penge is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour. The 27-year-old Englishman finished tied for 49th at the Masters and tied for 28th in last year’s U.S. Open.
Blades Brown or Luke Clanton: Brown, 18, shot a course-record round of 60 in the American Express Championship in January. Two years ago, the Nashville native broke Bobby Jones’ record as the youngest medalist at stroke play in U.S. Amateur history.
“If you want to go out and follow somebody and see some good golf, there are a lot of good young players that I am very confident are going to be household names in another two to three years,” Worthy said. “With the kind of young talent we have in the field, it wouldn’t surprise me to see one of those up-and-coming names start their journey here and go on to what some of those other (Zurich champions) have done.”
Despite the field’s relative lack of star power, Worthy said tournament officials expect big crowds throughout the week. Four-day attendance totals topped 100,000 each of the past two years, and Worthy expects food, beverage and merchandise sales to remain strong.
“I just think New Orleans is one of the most interesting cities that we go to in the world of golf,” said Geoff Ogilvy, the 48-year-old Australian, who will be playing in his 10th Zurich Classic. “I’ve played everywhere around the world. This is right up there with one of the most interesting places. Incredible food. It has such a good vibe about it. The music. We stay in so many similar hotels and do similar things every week our whole career. To get an opportunity to come to a place that’s got a bit of vibe like this, I’m always going to say yes.”