PGA stars showing ‘fun side of golf’ in 2-man team event this weekend

AVONDALE, La. — It has the feel of a guys’ weekend out in New Orleans for Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth and a host of other PGA Tour stars at the new team event that the Zurich Classic has become.

Watson expects the revamped format in the Big Easy, which debuts today, to be a treat for fans and players — and good for golf.

“For them to come up with this idea of showing the fun side of golf . . . you’re going to see a lot of smiles, a lot of laughing and a lot of enjoyment of the game,” said Watson, who won the Zurich Classic in 2011 when it was a traditional, stroke-play event.

Now there are 80 two-player teams — and the players got to choose their partners.

Apparently, few players performed an exhaustive analysis of which players’ games might complement their own on a two-man team. In many cases, players paired up with friends — or family.

“I think there was very little research and homework done compared to what you might think in creating these teams,” said Spieth, who teamed up with fellow Texan Ryan Palmer. “A lot of friends, and that’s going to be enticing, too, to almost kind of feel like it’s a little bit of a break.”

Englishman Justin Rose, fresh off his second-place in the Masters, is teaming with fellow European Henrik Stenson of Sweden.

“If you don’t get along, it’s going to be a long four days out there,” Stenson said. “And of course to team up with a player of Justin’s calibre is hopefully going to make that journey a bit smoother.”

Not to say it won’t be competitive. The winning team takes home $1.02 million per player plus FedExCup points.

“How would you not want to be here for this event?” said Watson, who is playing in New Orleans for the first time since 2013. “For (Zurich and the PGA Tour) to step out of the box and do something like this is pretty amazing.”