All-time Power Rankings: Zurich Classic of New Orleans

Resiliency strengthens the spirit and enriches the soul. That is a chorus worth repeating during this time of uncertainty. It’s also a reality experienced by anyone who has faced adversity and fought to emerge from it. It happens every day and all around us. Then there are the moments stolen by events of a scale too massive to comprehend absent the construct of time. As we wrap our heads around the pandemic that has halted so many of the experiences that we’ve taken for granted, including the 2019-20 PGA TOUR season, this week we’re reminded of the lives upended by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast states 15 years ago. This is a region that has seen an inordinate extent of challenges in a relatively short period of time. The city not only is waging another battle, this time with COVID-19, but it’s lost the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, and just weeks after it laid to rest Ellis Marsalis. The patriarch of the musical family performed and recorded for decades. He also was an educator of jazz, which, with respect for and appreciation of the funky moves of Jim Furyk and Matthew Wolff to name two notables, truly is an original American art form. Like the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, the annual Jazz Fest that usually aligns with the TOUR’s swing into town was postponed, and then canceled. With both poised to resume in 2021, we are afforded the break to pay tribute to the fantastic history of golf in NOLA. The first-ever sanctioned event in The Big Easy was the Southern (Spring) Open in early March of 1922. Gene Sarazen won the 72-hole competition at New Orleans Country Club. It was the first of 38 TOUR titles for The Squire. Fred Haas was six years old at the time. The Arkansas native would go on to play collegiately at LSU where he was the NCAA individual champion in 1937. He made his PGA TOUR debut as an amateur at the second-ever Masters in 1935 when Sarazen was the champion. Haas’ TOUR career spanned 51 years and 402 starts. It concluded at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in 1986 in what was the third-to-last edition at Lakewood County Club. He was 70 years old and in his 25th appearance. Calvin Peete prevailed by five strokes. Haas missed the cut but equaled Bernhard Langer (at 10-over 154) three weeks before the German was the defending champion at the Masters. Davis Love III, then a 21-year-old rookie who remains active on TOUR today, finished T23. The tournament launched anew in 1938 with nine editions without a cut. After another nine-year break, it’s been a fixture on the schedule since 1958. Every edition since has included a 36-hole cut. Since 2017, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans has been a two-man team competition with alternating rounds of four-ball and foursomes. Every partner of the winning team is credited with a PGA TOUR victory. Of the six winners, 2019 champion Ryan Palmer has the only other top 10 of the last three editions. He also finished fourth (with Jordan Spieth) in 2017. Non-winners Tommy Fleetwood, Scott Brown, Kevin Kisner and Jason Dufner each have exactly two top-five finishes since 2017. The results cited below take into account all editions since 1938. ALL-TIME POWER RANKINGS: ZURICH CLASSIC OF NEW ORLEANS 15. Steve Flesch Had a love affair with English Turn. Debuted with a runner-up finish (to Lee Westwood) in 1998 and shared second (behind Carlos Franco) in 1999. After adding a T6 in 2000, he finally broke through for victory in a playoff over Bob Estes in 2003. It was the lefty’s first of four TOUR titles. After the event moved to TPC Louisiana, he finished no better than T23 (in 2008) in seven trips. 14. Calvin Peete Won the last of his 12 PGA TOUR titles at this event in 1986. Overall, he cashed nine times in 14 appearances. All six of his top 30s were top 10s, including three in a row from 1978-1980. 13. Jason Dufner Six top 10s and no other top 40s in 10 appearances. His success in the team competition is highlighted above, but in the era of the individual event, he punctuated a T9-T7-T3 run from 2009-2011 with a playoff victory (over the other Big Easy, Ernie Els) in 2012. 12. Doug Sanders From his tournament debut in 1960 and extending through 1967, he went 8-for-8, all for top 25s with a win in 1961, two thirds and a T4. Made the last of 12 appearances in 1972 and finished T22. The 20-time PGA TOUR winner known in part for dressing resplendently died on April 12 at the age of 86. 11. Miller Barber The native of Shreveport, Louisiana, missed only one edition from 1962-1980 and made most of the trips worth his while. In addition to a playoff victory in 1970, he lost in a playoff to Jack Nicklaus in 1973 and placed T3 twice. Overall, he went 16-for-18 with seven top 10s and another five top 25s. 10. Billy Horschel He’s the first and, so far, the only winner as an individual (2013) and as a member of a team (2018). He and Scott Piercy finished T13 in their title defense – Horschel’s only other top 25 in nine appearances. He hasn’t skipped a trip since breaking onto the PGA TOUR in 2011. 9. Chip Beck Probably known best as the second in PGA TOUR history to sign for a 59 (in Las Vegas in 1991), but he collected two of his four victories in New Orleans. He was the last winner at Lakewood Country Club (1988) and the fourth champion at English Turn (1992). He also posted a pair of T9s and a T20, but he cashed only nine of 20 appearances. 8. Gary Player Prior to his victory in 1972, he laid the foundation for his level of comfort in New Orleans with a T4, two sixth-place finishes and a pair of T9s. After the win, he added a T11 in 1974 and a T5 in 1978. All told, he connected for eight top-11 finishes and didn’t miss a cut. 7. Ben Crenshaw Opened his 21-start career in the tournament with a T2 as a 22-year-old in 1974. Two more top 10s followed before he won by three shots at Lakewood in 1987. He’d pick off just one more top 20 in his last 12 trips, but it was another three-stroke title at English Turn in 1994. 6. Henry Picard In his tournament debut in 1939, he captured victory in the second edition of the event. After sitting out his title defense, he returned in 1941 and won it again. He’d go on to make three more starts, finishing no worse than T7 in his last in 1946. 5. Byron Nelson City Park Golf Club in New Orleans was one of the 18 sites on which he famously prevailed in 1945. He repeated the feat in 1946 to become the first back-to-back champion just eight years into the tournament’s history, but he never returned. His overall record also includes a solo second in 1944 among six top 10s in seven appearances. 4. Jack Nicklaus Given the fact that he averaged a top 10 in every other PGA TOUR start through the age of 58, he’s going to appear in the all-time Power Rankings just about everywhere he was a regular. That includes in New Orleans where he won in a playoff in 1973, finished second three times, T3 once and T4 twice. In 20 appearances, he totaled nine top 10s and 13 top 25s, the last a T14 as a 51-year-old in 1991. 3. Frank Beard Compressed all 11 career titles into his first nine years on TOUR, two of which at Lakewood in 1966 and 1971. He also lost in a playoff (to Larry Hinson) in 1969, finished third in 1967 and placed T7 in 1968. While he totaled 17 starts through 1980, for most intents and purposes, his last hurrah occurred in 1974 when he faded to finish T20. 2. Billy Casper It’s a coin flip to determine which is more impressive, that he won in his tournament debut in 1958 or that the last of his 51 PGA TOUR victories occurred at Lakewood in 1975. There’s no disputing that he enjoyed most visits what with a total of nine top 10s and 13 top 25s among 15 paydays. 1. Tom Watson While he’s one of 10 multiple champions of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans – none have won it more than twice – his record easily is the best. After missing the cut in his debut in 1972, he went 20-for-20 with consecutive victories (1980, 1981), two seconds (including in his last visit as a 46-year-old in 1996) and two thirds among 12 top 10s and another three top 25s. HONORABLE MENTIONS Carlos Franco The most recent of the four back-to-back champions (1999, 2000) in tournament history and the only to accomplish it at English Turn managed only two more top 25s in 10 starts on two courses thereafter. Bo Wininger To win once anywhere is an achievement. To win in consecutive editions of the same tournament on two different courses, as he did at City Park in 1962 and Lakewood in 1963, is downright impressive. However, he still couldn’t crack the Power Rankings because he cashed only one other time in just three other starts with a T49 in 1965. Two years later, he died three weeks after his 45th birthday. Lee Trevino The only one-time winner of the tournament (1974) in this grouping concluded his modest record in New Orleans with consecutive runner-up finishes in 1979 and 1980. When he signed his last card at Lakewood, he went in the books with an 8-for-9 record with those three top 10s and another trio of top 25s. Harold “Jug” McSpaden There are 23 former winners of the tournament who were bumped in favor of this attention. In his six appearances from 1938 through 1946, he finished second three times, third twice and fourth. His playoff loss (to Byron Nelson) in 1945 was one of 13 second-place finishes that year and 30 in his career. Sam Snead This last slot well could have been given to Greg Norman, who finished second in three consecutive appearances (over a four-year period). In going 9-for-9, the Aussie also placed fourth and fifth for a total of five top 10s. However, Snead earns this nod with an even more consistently strong record. In seven appearances over 11 years ending in 1948, he finished second twice, third twice, fourth once and T7 twice.

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