PGA DFS Core Plays - DraftKings & FanDuel: WM Phoenix Open
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS plays at various salary ranges for the coming week’s golf tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
WM Phoenix Open
We have a lot to talk about, but let’s start with a quick recap of the golf events that happened last week. Justin Rose was able to outlast the field over the course of five days at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. It was his first win on tour since 2019. While I didn’t have any exposure to him, it’s good to see him back in the winner’s circle. Hopefully, we can see Rickie Fowler and Jason Day do the same at some point this year. Aaron Rodgers was part of the winning pro-am team, even though his partner missed the cut. Josh Allen and much of golf Twitter were not pleased at how many strokes Rodgers got despite his low handicap.
On the DP World Tour, we had a wild finish at the Ras Al Khaimah Championship. Daniel Gavins hit two shots in the water on his closing hole, but made a 40-footer to save double bogey and win the event by one. On the Korn Ferry Tour, college standout Pierceson Coody won for his second time already this season. Many are clamoring that he should be on the PGA Tour already and there’s really not a good reason why he shouldn’t be able to move up to the next level. In other golf news, this will be the last year for the WGC Match Play in Austin. They are hoping to find a new venue for a match play event, but it won’t be at Austin Country Club and there will no longer be any WGC events. This is an event that I go to each year with my dad and my son (the three Landons), so I’m sad to see it go.
We now turn our attention to one of the best events of the year. The WM Phoenix Open is now a “designated” event and the first of its kind. It has attracted a major-like field and everyone is buzzing for Thursday to get underway. This event already has an incredible atmosphere and now we get a star-studded field in a city that is also hosting the Super Bowl this weekend. There are few places that I would rather be than Scottsdale right now, although I am very excited to visit RotoGrinders HQ in Nashville this weekend. It’s been too long since I’ve seen the crew and since I’ve had Hattie B’s chicken.
Everyone loves talking about the madhouse that is the 16th hole and I can confirm that it is an incredible experience. However, we shouldn’t sell the rest of the course short. The Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale has one of the best finishes on the PGA Tour. There’s the risk/reward par five 15th with water in play on the tee shot and on the approach shot, there’s the nerve-wracking 16th stadium hole, there’s the drivable par four 17th where it’s just as easy to make bogey as it is to make birdie, and then you have the final hole that requires a good drive to have any chance at a birdie. There is always drama coming down the stretch at this event on Sunday.
The course itself if a Par 71 that measures 7,261 yards. It’s a desert course, but does have water hazards in play on six of the 18 holes. The fairways are generous, but do narrow as you get closer to the green. It doesn’t hurt to be long or to be accurate, so focusing on strokes gained off the tee and/or total driving is the best path for off the tee metrics. The greens themselves are large (over 7,000 square feet on average) and feature tiers, which places on emphasis on iron play. Scrambling is fairly simple compared to most venues and it’s tough for elite putters to make up a ton of strokes on the greens if they aren’t hitting the ball well. This is why TPC Scottsdale has been a ball striker’s paradise and why I am fine going back to #TeamNoPutt this week.
In terms of difficulty, this course is right around tour average over the last five years. The winning score is typically in the -15 to -19 range, but the forecast looks tame and this is easily the strongest field that the event has ever had. I’m expecting at least one golfer to reach 20-under this week. We’ve had a nice mix of winners here over the years — Scottie Scheffler, Webb Simpson, Hideki Matsuyama, Brooks Koepka, and Gary Woodland have all won recently. Course history tends to be very predictive at this venue, perhaps because it’s a shock to the system for golfers that are playing here the first time around.
There are projected to be more than 600,000 people in attendance over the course of the four days and I can’t wait to watch madness ensue. All we can ask for as fans is for someone to hit a hole-in-one on 16 on Saturday. It might break the internet. As you can tell, I’m clearly amped for this week. And to make it even better, we don’t have a course rotation, we have a 36-hole cut, and we get ShotTracker for all four rounds. Life is good. I’m feeling a big week ahead for RG premium members.
Model Video & Download Link for the WM Phoenix Open
Tournament Info
Field Size:
- 136 golfers
Cut Rule:
- Top 65 and ties move on after the first two rounds
Weather Forecasts