Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia by far the best hopes for European success

Sky Sports Golf, 1.30pm Thursday

Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia are ambassadors for tournament sponsors Zurich who have had the Zurich Classic on their schedule all year and the Ryder Cup colleagues should give a decent account of themselves in the four-day pairs competition at TPC Louisiana.

Fleetwood and Garcia are both greens-in-regulation machines who are well suited to the venue and they should set up countless birdie opportunities, even in the foursomes. A steady week of putting from the dynamic duo would see them surely threaten to take the silverware.

A safer bet than backing the Englishman and the Spaniard outright is to support them in the top European market at a shade of odds-on. This is a four-team section, with the opposition coming from Graeme McDowell and Henrik Stenson, Ian Poulter and Sam Horsfield, and Padraig Harrington and Shane Lowry.

McDowell has found some form, but he is the world number 114 and still far from the player who won the US Open in 2010, while Stenson has failed to find top gear all year.

Sam Horsfield has not competed since March 10 and will tee up with plenty of rust in his system, while Poulter, like Lowry, blew an excellent winning chance in the Heritage on Sunday and may have arrived in Louisiana lacking zest.

There are obvious holes in the other European pairs – most glaringly the lack of recent form from Horsfield and Padraig Harrington – and Fleetwood and Garcia can be fancied to outclass them all with a degree of comfort.

In the opening-day fourball contests, one team who are out early and another who are out late make most appeal. Scott Stallings and Trey Mullinax are a powerful, attacking duo who should make merry in this format, and they can outgun Martin Laird and Nick Taylor in their 1.13pm meeting.

QBE Shootout champions Brian Harman and Patton Kizzire clearly relish partnering each other and they can be deadly on the greens. Take this little and large combination to outscore the plodding pair of Andrew Landry and Austin Cook in the 6.44pm match.

Recommendations
T Fleetwood & S Garcia top Europeans
3pts 10-11 bet365, RedZone
S Stallings & T Mullinax to win fourball
1pt 21-20 bet365
B Harman & P Kizzire to win fourball
1pt 21-20 SkyBet

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