Waste Management Phoenix Open
TPC Scottsdale - well known for it's curse on 54 hole leaders - is the venue for this week's Phoenix Open, and we are targetting a few key stats to point us in the direction of a possible winner this week. It's a stadium course played on a links type desert course, and has seen it's fair share of low scores over the years.
For a winner, we are likely to be looking for a player with decent GIR stats come Sunday - five of the top six in 2017 were in the Top 10 on that stat, while Hideka Matsuyama topped that one when winning in 2016. Scrambling stats are also important, as will be Par 4 performance, and they are the three we'll be targeting in this one.
With such a class field in attendance - Jordan Spieth, Hideka Matsuyama, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler to name but five, you're getting double figures whomever you pick. Of the five, we fancy Matsuyama to win for a third year in a row - he's been awesome here in the past, with form reading 1-1-2-4 on this track, and he also finished 4th and 12th in his last two outings, so comes here as a confident World Number 5. At 10/1 though, it will be hard to get too excited of course, so we should also look a little further down the order.
Brenden Steele is our second pick at around 50/1 with seven places on offer with several firms. Steele currently lies 17th for GIR in 2018, and has enjoyed decent success here in the past. Since 2013 he has posted 6-6-26-17-16, so should be trusted to keep in the mix here deep into the weekend.
He opened the season strongly, winning the Safeway Open before T13 at the CIMB Classic and T4 in the QBE Shootout. More recently he has finihsed 29-T20-T29, and that most recent result might have been much better but for a final round 76 at the Farmers Insurance Open. At 50/1 he's got to have a punchers chance in this one.
Finally, add in Daniel Berger who has visited this track three times in his short career, and made the top 10 in two of those. It certainly looks to suit his style and aptitude. The Florida star has already claimed a decent 11th in the Sentry and T14s at the Sony Open, and he loves the greens here. At 33/1 he looks long enough to get the nod.
1pt e/w Matsuyama at 10/1
1pt e/w Steele at 50/1
1pt e/w Berger at 33/1
Take 7 places with Sky Bet, PaddyPower, Betfair, Coral or Boylesports. All pay 1/5 odds.