The WM Phoenix Open returns to our television screens this week. While the atmosphere sometimes overshadows the on course play, with the quality of field this event brings in that should not be the case this week. For being a TPC course, it has a lot of intriguing holes especially down the stretch with 15-18 being one of the most memorable stretches of golf each year on Tour. The island green par 5 15th is always intriguing from a strategy standpoint. The 16th hole is unlike anything else in all of golf from an atmosphere perspective. The 17th is risk reward at it’s finest, and to top it off, the 18th is just a challenging closing hole. We are running hot with our picks so far this year, hitting two correct predictions so far this year thanks to Wyndham Clark’s unbelievable round of 60 at Pebble Beach last week. Let us waste no time in getting to our picks this week. We will stick with our normal format of one prediction for a player from the top, middle, and bottom of the odds board this week. Let’s get to it!
Matt Fitzpatrick
Fitzpatrick has played in this event twice. He made the cut both times and finished T10 and T29 respectively. So with that, we know that he shows up favorably in this event. He has been in a real rut with his putting recently which has really brought down his finishes in his recent starts. If you continue to dig into his stats deeper, we see that his approach play has actually been really good so far this season gaining him strokes in three of his last four starts. Fitzpatrick has been a player who runs either really hot or really cold in his recent history. You look at his datagolf page and see strings of top 10 finishes and wins, or runs of missed cuts with a T49 thrown in there. I think Fitzpatrick breaks his recent downturn of form and shows up big at The WM Phoenix Open this week. Look for him to grab a top 5 finish this week.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout
This is a pick based on current form above all else. He is one of the shorter players on Tour off of the tee and he has been his whole career. He has always compensated for that by being one of the elite putters in the game who you can never count out no matter where his approach lands. Well in the last couple of weeks, his approach player has been borderline elite level. When you give one of the best putters in the world repeated looks from inside of 15 feet, that is a recipe for success. He came in solo 2nd at The Amex on the back of that formula and it projects well at The Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale this week as well. I think Bezuidenhout can keep up his quality run of form this week and finish in the Top 10.
Carl Yuan
Yuan is someone who fits the more classic bomber type of a profile. He hits the cover off of the golf ball as we all saw the video of him this week hitting 305 yards of carry with his 3 wood on the range. What has let him down this year at times has been his putting. In the 2023 PGA Tour season and so far in this one, when he has been positive strokes gained putting, he has only finished worse than T18 one time! The correlation is truly staggering between his even just slightly above average putting weeks and his success in events. While he has missed his last two cuts, he was able to finish T4 at The Sony open not that long ago. You know he will always be gaining strokes off the tee simply with how long he is off the tee. You only need one or two other areas of his game to click in a given week, and you will be looking at a high finish. Look for Yuan to finish in the top 20 at The WM Phoenix Open.
