Former Zurich Classic champions Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele have committed to play in the 2024 Zurich Classic, tournament officials announced Thursday.
Cantlay, the No. 7 ranked player in the world, and Schauffele, the No. 5 ranked player, teamed to win the 2022 Zurich Classic.
鈥淧atrick and Xander are two of the best players in the world,鈥 said Steve Worthy, the CEO of the Fore!Kids Foundation, which operates the tournament for the PGA Tour. 鈥淭hey have partnered successfully in both Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup competitions, and they won our tournament before, so we expect them to be among the favorites here this year.鈥
The commitments of Cantlay and Shauffele give the Zurich pledges from five of the Top 15 players in the latest World Golf Rankings. No. 2 Rory McIlroy, No. 11 Matt Fitzpatrick and No. 15 Sahith Theegala previously committed to the tournament, which will be played April 25-28 at the TPC of Louisiana.
Cantlay and Schuaffele teamed to win the 2022 Zurich by two strokes in wire-to-wire fashion over the team of Billy Horschel and LSU鈥檚 Sam Burns. Cantlay and Schauffele tied for fourth in last year鈥檚 tournament.
In the 2022 Presidents Cup, both Cantlay and Schauffele posted 3-1 records for the winning American team. They also teamed to win both matches in the 2021 Ryder Cup.
Cantlay scored ten top-10 finishes in 2023, including two seconds, two thirds and two fourths.
In 2022, he successfully defended his BMW Championship in the FedExCup Playoffs. In addition to his two wins in 2022, he also posted three seconds, a third and a total of 12 top 10 finishes, winning a career-best $9,369,605 for the season.聽
He won the FedExCup in 2021 and earned the Jack Nicklaus Award as PGA Tour Player of the Year after taking four titles in 2020-21: the ZOZO Championship, the Memorial Tournament presented by Nationwide, BMW Championship and the Tour Championship. He recorded seven total top-10 finishes and made the cut in 19 of 24 starts.
Schauffele has six top-10 finishes in eight tournaments this year. He recently tied for second in The Players Championship, then tied for fifth in the Valspar Championship the next week. He started the season fast with a tie for tenth in The Sentry, followed by a tie for third in The American Express and a tie for ninth the next week in the Farmers Insurance Open. He also posted a tie for fourth in The Genesis Invitational and currently ranks fourth in FedExCup points.
He's won seven times since joining the PGA Tour full time in 2017. He won the Tour Championship his rookie year in 2017 and has since finished no worse than a tie for seventh in the season-ending tournament. He was the first rookie in the FedExCup era to win the Tour Championship.
He was named PGA Tour Rookie of the Year in 2017 and has made the Tour Championship every year since then.
He tied for second in the 2019 Masters and has never finished worse than tied for 14th聽in the six U.S. Open tournaments he has played. He also tied for second in the 2018 Open Championship.
In addition to his win and tie for fourth in the last two Zurich Classic events, he also finished tied for 11th聽in the 2021 tournament, paired for the first time with Patrick Cantlay. In 2017, Schauffele finished tied for 11th聽in the Zurich Classic teamed with Tag Ridings, when Cantlay finished one stroke behind in a tie for 14th聽playing with Patrick Reed.
At the 2020 Olympics played in 2021 in Tokyo, Schauffele聽held the outright lead after the second and third rounds before making a par at the 72nd hole to secure a one-stroke victory and the gold medal.
