Ranking of the Zurich Classic 2022, notes: the team of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele take a wire-to-wire victory

Much like the first three days of the 2022 Zurich Classic, the team of Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele led late in Sunday’s final and each took their first wins of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season.

It was more interesting than I thought for the -800 favorites going into Sunday with a five shot lead. After shooting 59-68-60 through the first three days, they eagled at No. 1. 7 on Sunday in alternating shots to come in at -31 for the week, and it looked completely over. However, the bogeys at Nos. 9-10 consecutively reduced their lead over the team of Sam Burns and Billy Horschel to just one, and the hunt was on.

Cantlay and Schauffele played the rest of the way in uneventful par to finish tied on the day and 29 under for the week and beat Burns and Horschel – and their heroic Sunday effort – by two, but it wasn’t the cakewalk it looked like it would on Saturday night when this Ryder Cup duo galloped past a surprisingly strong field.

It might be lost to history because on paper it will look like a rout, but running this tournament for four consecutive days is extraordinarily difficult, even for co-favorites arriving within the week. It was the most impressive part of a stunning performance that included 27 birdies, three eagles and a new tournament record by two strokes.

The Cantlay-Schauffele partnership has become, perhaps somewhat improbably, a staple of professional golf. From the Presidents Cup in 2019 where they went 2-2-0 to the Ryder Cup in 2021 where they went 2-0-0 in alternating shots at this tournament last year when they finished T11 all the way to the Championship of this year, they seem to really enjoy playing with each other as much as they enjoy being with each other. It’s rare in professional golf and even more so at the highest level with two players ranked in the top 12 in the world.

“Today was a great day,” Cantlay told CBS Sports after the event. “We bring out the best in each other and we really enjoy being together. In a format like this, that’s the best.”

While their heroics at the Ryder Cup last September were rightly lauded, perhaps the current best couple in the world deserved a trophy of their own. And after four consecutive top rounds of an event with 10 of the top 20 players on the field, they won one at the Zurich Classic 2022 with an outrageous performance even more impressive than it looks.

Here are the rest of our notes for the Zurich Classic 2022.

2. Sam Burns/Billy Horschel (-27): Burns and Horschel picked the wrong week to get hot. The SEC duo finished three ahead of the rest of the field but still lost by two to Cantlay and Schauffele. Their run on Sunday, when they narrowed it down to one at the start of the back nine, was a thrill – one that wasn’t guaranteed on Sunday in the final round – and they’ve now finished T4 and second in solo in two appearances at this tournament. Two underrated players as individuals and maybe even more so as a team. Rating: A+

T5. Will Zalatoris/Davis Riley (-23): This is the couple I almost chose before going back to Horschel and Burns (which turned out to be a good idea). They were solid through the first three days but blew the gates with a 66 Sunday on alternate shots that included birdies on the last two holes and no bogeys at all. In fact, Zalatoris and Riley only made one bogey all week (considering half the competition an alternate shot). This gives Riley invaluable FedEx Cup points and puts him in the top 40 with only half the season remaining. Rating: A

T18. Scottie Scheffler/Ryan Palmer (-18): The Masters champion had a nice sequel to his green jacket performance, but this duo struggled too much in alternating shots to ever really get into the mix. After a 72 on Friday, they shot just a 1-under 71 in the same format on Sunday. While their best ball game was strong, a complete lack of movement in the tougher format left them more than 10 behind the lead by the time they finished on Sunday afternoon. This obviously doesn’t tell the whole story of a single player, and I’m more interested in what Scheffler will do in his next moveplay event than where he finished this week when he was paired with Palmer. Category B

T28. Viktor Hovland/Collin Morikawa (-16): Given their status as co-favorites this week and the fact that they are both ranked in the top five of the Official World Golf Rankings, a finish outside the top 20 must be seen as a disappointment for Hovland and Morikawa. I expected something less than 65 in each of the best-ball rounds given their equivalent birdie propensity (both rank in the PGA Tour’s top six in birdie or better percentage), and while 2 under in alternate shooting isn’t bad, he was never going to be good enough to contest this tournament. I’m all for them continuing to play together in the future because I love watching them both play golf, and I think when their short games really kick in, they have equal or more power. of fire than Cantlay and Schauffele. Category B-

T36. Jay Haas/Bill Haas (-12): It was a terrific week for the Haas team, which made the cut and made the eldest Haas (Jay), at 68, the oldest in PGA Tour history to play on the weekend at the ‘Event. Golf is the greatest sport in the world for a number of different reasons, but the fact that a father-son combo can compete for an event when the son is almost 40 years old tops the list. Rating: A+