Has the novelty of the Zurich Classic format worn off? Hardly any big names

The timing of the tournament this year is awful. Masters > Signature Event > Zurich > Signature Event.

Its the timing.

Since 2017, the first year of the team format, nearly all of the big names have played Zurich.

Scottie, Rory, Rahm, Speith, JT, Day, Rose, Lowry, Fleetwood, Morikawa, X, Cantlay, etc just off the top of my head and there are many more.

They got boned with the PGA Tour adding an additional Signature event before another one right before the PGA Champ. If you are a top player not sponsored by Zurich, which one are you going to skip? These guys don't want to play 6 weeks in a row.

It wasn't some marquee event before it went to the team event either. A big issue with the timing is that because of the climate/agronomy of SE Louisiana there is only a small window on the calendar they can get the course in the conditions needed for a PGA Tour event.

What they need to do is move the PGA Championship back to August and spread out the signature events so more guys won't feel compelled to skip New Orleans.

They need to move it back to August if anything to balance out the schedule. It sucks that by the time we are mid-summer the entire major season is done.

I know they want to have everything wrapped up by the time NFL kicks off but everything is so condensed. I mean just look at the onslaught of elevated events coming up. Also it allows many of the northern courses to play more difficult than they would in May. I mean Valhalla looked like the Zurich a few years ago.

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They need to move it back to August

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PGA players won't enjoy the 100 degree heat.

Have you not heard the LSU fans complain about day games early in the year? It's miserable hot here that time of year.

I was trying to say the PGA Championship should be moved back to August so the Sig events could be spread out. I didn't word it well.

Zurich can stay where it is at, maybe a week after would be ideal to still lineup with Jazzfest and to get away from the RBC by a week.

Course is looking awesome on tv

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Course is looking awesome on tv

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It looks better in person. I noticed there is a fair amount of poa in the rough, but I haven’t seen any in the fairways or greens.

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It looks better in person. I noticed there is a fair amount of poa in the rough, but I haven’t seen any in the fairways or greens.

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It doesn’t look all that good on TV. Flat, bland course. Pete Dye screwed Louisiana. Look how shaggy and unkept the areas around the ponds are. Full of weeds and organic growth.

Augusta and other tour stops have that manicured vertical strip of grass on edge of water features.

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If the rumors of RBC pulling out the harbor town event are true, the Zurich’s is in a much better spot.

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I'm not sure about this rumor. It was reported that early on the new PGA Tour braintrust was trying to tell sponsors to abandon their current events and instead sponsor as-of-yet unnamed tournaments in big cities, but I think the sponsors are pushing back on that. That's basically what's happened with Sentry. Kapalua is done, and the tour convinced them to switch their sponsorship to a March event to be named later (probably Torrey Pines).

I think that's one of the reasons Rolapp had to come out a few weeks ago and say, "Gee, I don't know why people think we are abandoning most of our tournaments. No truth to that." Because, genius, you were trying to do exactly that and the sponsors said no, "We're gonna work with who we want work with, not who you tell us to work with."

So I think that's where those rumors came from. Hopefully Zurich is just as adamant when the tour comes to them trying to do the same thing.