The Zurich Classic: Golden Graham can claim his maiden win, says The Punter

Graham DeLaet - can he get off the mark this week?

Steve takes us through all the important stats for this week's PGA Tour event, where he's picked a trio of outsiders before the off. Read his preview here...

Tournament History
The first Zurich Classic was way back in 1938. There were no tournaments between 1949 and 1957 and this will be the 67th staging of the event.

Venue
TPC Louisiana, Avondale, Louisiana

Course Details
Par 72 -7,341 yards
Stroke Index in 2012 - 71.00

The TPC Louisiana made its event debut in 2005 but just a year later the tournament returned to its old venue, English Turn, after Hurricane Katrina devastated this venue. The event returned in 2007 and it's been played here ever since.

TPC Louisiana, like Hilton Head last week, is a Bermuda grass Pete Dye design. Built on 250 acres of former swamp land, the course has 71 bunkers and fully 20 acres of the site are covered in sand! Water is in play on eight holes and the average-sized greens will be running at around 11 on the stimpmeter.

Useful Sites
Event Site
Twitter Link
Weather Forecast

TV Coverage
Live on Sky all four days, starting at 8.00pm on Thursday.

Last Five Winners
2012 - Jason Dufner -19 (playoff)
2011 - Bubba Watson -15 (playoff)
2010 - Jason Bohn -18
2009 - Jerry Kelly -14
2008 - Andres Romero -13

What will it take to win the Zurich Classic?
Jason Dufner ranked 25th for Greens In Regulation twelve months ago but that looks an anomaly. All the other winners at this venue have ranked inside the top 10 for greens hit. The other stat to examine closely is Par 5 Performance - the worst any winner here has ranked is 18th (Jason Bohn) and four of the top-five last year played the long holes in double-digits under-par.

Is there an angle in?
This might be a place to break your PGA Tour duck, as 10 of the last 19, and five of the last eight winners, were all winning their first event.

Is there an identikit winner?
Finding the type of player to succeed here isn't easy - the list of winners is quite confusing. Big-hitters Andres Romero, Nick Watney and Bubba Watson have all prospered but so too have Tim Petrovic, Jason Bohn and Jerry Kelly, players not known for the length by any means and last year's winner, Dufner, fits in-between the two.

In-Play Tactics
With the last four winners all in front by halfway, this looks like another event to concentrate on the early pace-setters.

Andres Romero came from a country mile back (73rd after round one!) in 2008 but the last four winners have all been up there all the way.

Dufner, having ended day one tied for 7th and two off the lead, hit the front at halfway, Bubba Watson and Jason Bohn, in 2011 and 2010, both won wire-to-wire and Jerry Kelly, like Dufner, had hit the front by halfway in 2009.

Market Leaders
In an open-looking affair, Justin Rose heads the market at 14.5n/a. Although winless in 2013, the Englishman has been in fine fettle and sooner or later the odds are that he'll knock down the door he's been hammering on. He went to Augusta on the back of three straight top-tens on the PGA Tour and contended there too before his challenge disintegrated over the weekend.

There has to be a concern that that has left its mark and given tied 10th is the best he's mustered here from five starts, I'm more than happy to leave him out.

The last two winners of the event, Dufner and Bubba, are vying for second favouritism but both look a shade too short to me.

It's never easy defending a title and defending your first one is probably doubly so. Although he has, by some distance, the best course form on display, with figures that read 44-9-7-3-1, I can see Dufner struggling a bit this week. Not only does he have the pressure of defending, he isn't in tip-top form at present either.

Bubba finished tied for 18th twelve months ago and that was a fantastic effort given the circumstances. He wasn't just attempting to defend this title, he was also attempting to win back-to-back tournaments and the first one was quite a biggy - the US Masters! I can't take the plunge at less than 20.019/1 before the off but I will be keeping a close eye on him in-running.

The only other two players trading at less than 30.029/1 are Keegan Bradley and Rickie Fowler and as they nearly always appear to me, they both look way too short.

Selections
Given their strong record in the event, I'll be concentrating my efforts on the early pace-setters but I have picked out three before the off...

I'm a huge fan of Graham DeLaet and I've backed him a number of times but not recently. With his form far more consistent this season, the days of getting huge prices about the Canadian look gone for now but his missed cut last week at the Heritage, at a venue I wouldn't have thought suited, looks to have given us a chance.

DeLaet is the only man in the field that ranks in the top-ten for the two stats that count - GIR and Par 5 Performance. He played alongside Dufner in the final group on Sunday last year but dropped down to a tie for fourth. As stated above, maidens have a decent record at this tournament, could Graham be the next one to break his PGA Tour duck here?

I backed Rory Sabbatini last week when he finished inside the top-ten at Hilton Head and I've done so again this. He was a bit of a stab in the dark at the Heritage and he was priced up accordingly. If I'm honest, I had to talk myself into taking 85.084/1 this week after backing him at 280.0279/1 last, but he showed plenty at Hilton Head and I couldn't let him go un-backed.

He was runner-up here behind Jerry Kelly in 2009 and he ranked 2nd for greens hit last week. You never quite know what you're going to get with Sabba but he's a multiple winner who's not frightened of winning and when he's on-song he's a man I want onside.

Boo Weekley was all the rage last week as he attempted to win his third Heritage title - gambled down to a far too-short price in the 30.029/1's. Tied 42nd wasn't a great effort, thanks mainly to some poor scrambling and a cold putter and he has a mixed record here with form figures reading MC-13-10-MC but I thought he was worth chancing at a big price.

Currently ranked 6th for GIR and 13th for par 5 performance, like DeLaet, he ticks the right stats boxes boldly and with less pressure than last week, I can see him getting involved.

Selections:
Rory Sabbatini @ 85.084/1
Graham DeLaet @ 85.084/1
Boo Weekley @ 90.089/1

I'll be back on Friday morning with the In-Play Blog.

*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter