The PGA Tour told the Zurich Classic has a ‘dreadful’ problem which needs to be fixed

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The Zurich Classic of New Orleans proved to be something of a palate cleanser on the PGA Tour after The Masters and the latest signature event.

The PGA Tour season had an ideal moment to knock things down a gear this past week. Of course, The Masters had been on the minds of many for several weeks before the world’s best players even got to Augusta National. Meanwhile, many of those same players were in the field for the RBC Heritage the following week.

While Rory McIlroy was playing at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, plenty took the opportunity to rest up rather than tee it up at TPC Louisiana.

The Zurich Classic is a unique event on the PGA Tour calendar. The players are paired up and tackle two rounds of fourballs and two rounds of foursomes.

The Zurich Classic of New Orleans told what change needs to be made

The event is in a tricky spot in the schedule given that it is mostly surrounded by signature events and majors. But perhaps there is an obvious way that the organisers could make the tournament more appealing to other players.

Speaking on the Golf Channel Podcast, Rex Hoggard suggested that holding the event at TPC Louisiana does the tournament no favours at all.

“The location is fantastic, the location where you are in New Orleans, the French Quarter, that’s where I am. The location of the golf course not so much, it’s on the other side of the river for folks that don’t really know the geography, it’s in a place called Avondale which really isn’t anywhere close to the French Quarter or where everyone really wants to be. This week, it’s Jazz Fest so that’s probably best. But there’s other options,” he said.

“When Katrina came through and did all the damage it did and did what it did to this city, they rebuilt City Park and part of that rebuild was to take essentially the land for two of the golf courses that were there and just it turn into one better golf course. And I was told all along the idea was they’re going to build one better golf course because that’s where they want to have the Zurich Classic. They need to have it closer to this.

“To give you an idea, I’m in the French Quarter right now, City Park’s only about a 10 minute drive away. It would be centrally located. It would be perfect. There’s no reason to stay at TPC Louisiana. It isn’t a great golf course by any stretch of the imagination. No-one is going to flock there just to play that golf course. So the only reason to stay out there is because it’s a TPC. That certainly they could fix.”

“TPC Louisiana is dreadful. You mentioned City Park and it’s actually going to be on the LIV schedule in a couple of years time, they just signed a multi-year contract with LIV Golf,” Ryan Lavner added, explaining why fans should not expect City Park to host the event anytime soon.

What Collin Morikawa said about TPC Louisiana ahead of the Zurich Classic

Of course, it was always unlikely that those in the field this past week were going to criticise the golf course ahead of the event.

But it was perhaps notable that Collin Morikawa was not exactly waxing lyrical about Pete Dye-designed golf courses when asked about how they can divide opinion ahead of the tournament. He was full of praise for TPC Sawgrass, but noted that he is not his favourite course designer.

“Look, my favourite are Alister MacKenzie golf courses. I grew up on a 10-hole Alister MacKenzie course, Chevy Chase out in LA, where I grew up. Not many 10-hole golf courses out there,” he said.

“But different styles — as you play a lot of golf, you get to learn the styles and how architects see the golf course and how they play out.

“There’s really not many better courses than Sawgrass, like just from a design aspect and the conditions. You add everything about that week, The Players, it just makes it a great week. But this is a great golf course.”

Ultimately, playing the event at a more exciting golf course may not change a great deal when it comes to attracting more of the world’s best players while it remains where it is on the schedule.

But some clearly feel that it is still worth switching things up.