3 months agoMatt Fitzpatrick heads to the Waste Management Phoenix Open this week coming off of a T58 at Pebble Beach and a missed cut at the Sony Open. Surprisingly, it's been the irons that have let Fitzy down of late. Outside of a spark in the pan during his runner-up finish at the BMW Championship last August, the Englishman hasn't gained more than 1.9 strokes on approach since last July. With the putter and driving coming and going without warning, it's tough to trust the 29-year-old, even with his decent course history of a T29 and T10 the past two years. At $9,400 this week on DraftKings, fantasy managers can look elsewhere for a safety/upside combo play in that range.Source: PGA Tour
3 months agoBeau Hossler has quickly become one of the more consistent players on the PGA Tour. After being known as a short-game star, Hossler has improved his ball striking since the summer. Following a brutal missed cut at Wyndham, Hossler has five top-15 finishes in nine starts and hasn't missed a cut. Hossler has great success on the greens at TPC Scottsdale but struggled on approach, so his improved game could lead to another good week for Hossler.Source: PGATOUR.com
3 months agoAfter a solid summer and great fall, Tom Kim has been battling this winter. Between three starts in Hawaii and California, Kim has missed a cut and finished outside the top 30 twice. Kim appears to be struggling the most with putting but outside of driving accuracy, Kim has been below his normal average across the board. He has the skills to snap out of this slump any week, but until he does it's tough to deploy him with confidence.Source: PGATOUR.com
3 months agoFrom week to week, it's hard to know which version of Cameron Young will appear. Some weeks Young's elite ball-striking skills offer him a ton of chances at birdies and he contends for a victory. However, most weeks see Young struggle to convert those birdies or scramble for par when his tee-to-green game is off. During his Rookie of the Year season, Young was among the better players on the PGA Tour with his putter, but the past two seasons have seen him lose strokes on the green.Source: PGATOUR.com
3 months agoIt doesn't take advanced stats to see that Justin Thomas has found his form. Thomas barely missed the playoffs last season and started 2024 looking more like a potential contender for his second title than another missed postseason. Thomas' approach play is back to normal and the putter issues that tend to plague him aren't an issue at TPC Scottsdale. With top-six finishes in his last five events and six straight top-20 Phoenix finishes, Thomas is easily one of the favorites to win this week.Source: PGATOUR.com
3 months agoAkshay Bhatia has had three rather good starts out of four so far in 2024. Aside from that opening round dud at The American Express, the American golfer has done very well. This Scottsdale course suits the young 22-year old quite a bit. Three Top 15 results are an immense boost here in the early going. Also, Bhatia is rising up the ranks. It is early but that 0.958 strokes gained through 16 rounds is impressive from a putting standpoint. He is hitting greens at a 75.93% rate and that is needed at Scottsdale. Hit the greens, set up for easier putts, and draining those putts is a recipe for success. Source: PGATour.com
3 months agoCorey Conners is 3-for-3 in making cuts in 2024. That has probably been his only highlight. He has not exactly contended or flamed out completely either. The Canadian golfer has never finished better than 17th at the WM Phoenix Open. Conners has more of a comfortable nature at The Valero Open. Now, he has never putted that well at Scottsdale but part of that may be his set up. He cannot make putts (128th in strokes gained in 2023 at -0.136). That number jumped past -1 a few times at Scottsdale. Again, hot starts have not been Conners' forte in Arizona. That has to change this week for him to improve. Source: PGATour.com
3 months agoThis course suits Min Woo Lee pretty well from the appearance. The Australian golfer does well and even though this is his career debut at Scottsdale. However, he has been in the Top 40 in seven of his last eight worldwide starts. That +1.5 average strokes gained on the field could loom pretty large too. Again, his potential for a hole-in-one at 16 raises his numbers a bit. Driving the ball and his iron play figures to be a big plus here as well. The expectation is to see Min Woo Lee contending come Sunday and he will play up to the crowd which helps.Source: PGATour.com
3 months agoPebble Beach proved to be difficult for some golfers, including Sungjae Im last week. The South Korean golfer shot a mere two-under par, which was good for a tie for 66th place. His first two tournaments were better, as he was in the top 25. The greens at Scottsdale for the Waste Management Phoenix Open are quite wide, and the grass is good for those who can hit shots, especially on the par-four holes. Im's greens in regulation were a bit below-average at 66.45% last year, but that can be turned around in Scottsdale. Starting out strong will be key for Im in Phoenix.Source: PGATour.com
3 months agoScottie Scheffler could not putt to get out of his own way last year. The Texas native ranked 161st in putting, but then there is TPC Scottsdale. On the Arizona course, Scheffler has gained three-plus strokes there three times. Considering how far below-average he was in his previous 15 events, his putter comes out to play at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. At the very least, Scheffler should be able to contend. No one would be surprised to see him on the first page of the leaderboard again on Sunday.Source: PGATour.com
3 months agoBefore taking the week off last week, Sam Burns placed sixth at the American Express two weeks ago, and while strokes gained data is largely tough to pinpoint at that event, we do know he gained an impressive 9.9 total strokes in La Quinta. That upside is what we've come to know from Burns, but he can disappear at times as well, as he did in his -0.5 stroke performance in the Sentry at his only other 2024 start thus far. The 27-year-old only has one other start at Pebble Beach in his history, and it was a T39 showing at the 2021 AT&T Pro-Am. It's always dangerous fading Burns, but it doesn't seem like a spot to take a stand yet, especially considering a lofty $8,900 price tag on DraftKings for the Louisiana native.Source: PGA Tour
3 months agoAfter two strong starts to start 2024, Sungjae Im's game fell apart at the Farmers, and he missed the cut for the first time since last July. The South Korean has yet to put everything together, but it's still early. Im heads to Pebble Beach for just the second time in his career, with a missed cut in 2019 as his only result. Even at just 25 years old, it's becoming clear that his game can spike at a moment's notice, so it's always dangerous to right him off. However, with a limited course history and a questionable form coming into this early February event, it's probably safe to steer clear from Im at $8,500 on DraftKings.Source: PGA Tour
3 months agoEric Cole is coming off his first missed cut since last May, but you'd think he's been out of the picture for a while based on his $7,300 DraftKings price tag. On the contrary, the California native was playing great golf before the Farmers, having gained a combined 17.4 strokes in his first three events of 2024. Cole has a T15 finish in his only other appearance at Pebble Beach, and while the weather can certainly throw in more variables than we might be able to predict, it's fair to say there's decent value on the late-blooming 35-year-old.Source: PGA Tour
3 months agoMaking his first start at the AT&T Pro-Am since his rookie season in 2011, Keegan Bradley will be looking to find some level of consistency on the West Coast. A runner-up finish three weeks ago on Oahu has been bookended by two disappointing outings at Kapalua and Torrey Pines, as Bradley has struggled to find the range with his typically reliable putter (well, by 2023 standards anyway). In the two aforementioned starts at the Farmers and Sentry, Bradley has lost a combined 8.0 strokes on the greens in seven recorded rounds; harkening many of his supporters back to the player we saw continually hemorrhage strokes on the greens from 2015 to 2021. West Coast poa hasn't exactly been Bradley's favorite historic putting surface, but if he can stabilize the stroke over the next four days, his recent ball-striking display around a similarly positional layout in Waialae gives us plenty of reason for optimism around Pebble Beach.Source: PGA Tour
3 months agoJust two weeks ago, Nick Dunlap was just another undergrad at the University of Alabama. An immaculate 2023 on the amateur circuit earned him status as one of the most promising prospects in the golfing world, but even his most ardent supporters couldn't have imagined his potential being fulfilled so soon. Dunlap turned a sponsor's invite at The American Express into a one-shot win, outdueling a duo with a combined 20 PGA Tour wins in the process, and earned his way into the collection of PGA Tour signature events. These 80-man, exclusive fields will be the ultimate proving ground for the 20-year-old, as he'll be able to test his abilities against the best fields the PGA Tour has to offer whilst being eligible for a share of an eye-popping eight-figure prize pool. Time will tell just how ready Dunlap is to compete against the world's best every week, but it's hard to imagine a better opportunity in the history of the sport for a 20-year-old recent college sophomore.Source: PGA Tour