Sport
Waste Management Phoenix Open preview: Burns and Oosthuizen fancied in Scottsdale
Arguably the strongest field of the PGA Tour season heads to TPC Scottsdale for one of the loudest and most boisterous tournaments of the entire year, the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
When the likes of world number one Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Viktor Hovland are teeing it up, you know it’s a field stacked in quality and so this is set to be a cracker of an event.
So sit back and enjoy the show…
Burns to take another step up the ladder in Scottsdale
As mentioned, this is a really strong field and it’s pretty obvious Arizona resident Rahm is the one to beat. He has a solid record at TPC Scottsdale with a worst place finish of 16th in six appearances and he was last seen when finishing third at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines. He looks ready to win and could easily this week, but at 15/2 in a field of this quality, it’s worth taking him on. Namely with Sam Burns, who looks tailormade for this test.
The 25-year-old is one of, if not the most improved players in world golf, as shown by the fact that he was ranked 223rd in the world rankings at the start of 2020 and just over two years later he’s now rated 14th. Since the start of the 2020/21 season, Burns has played 31 events on the PGA Tour, made 24 cuts with 18 top 25s. He’s also won twice in that time at the Valspar Championship and Sanderson Farms Championship, and it’s not like those have been flukes either as he has played very well in high-class fields at the Genesis Invitational, WGC Fed-Ex St Jude Invitational and Hero World Challenge.
Looking back through the winners of this event and, while you need an all-round solid tee-to-green game, approach play is particularly key with the last six winners averaging fifth in Strokes Gained: Approach, fourth in Greens In Regulation and 11th in Proximity to the Hole. Burns ranks 21st in SG: Approach, 13th in Greens in Regulation and a little lower at 63rd in Proximity to the Hole, so he looks well suited to the test this week, while the low-scoring that often occurs here should also play to his strengths.
The lowest winning score since 2017 is -17, so birdies, and plenty of them, are needed. Burns’ two victories on the PGA Tour have come with scores of -17 and -22, while he finished in a tie for second at the St Jude Invitational (-16), tied fifth at the CJ Cup (-21) and tied third in the Hero World Challenge (-15). In short then, he loves it when you need to put the peddle to the metal and this looks a great opportunity to get a third professional win of his career at 33/1.
Take a chance on King Louis
The other player who looks worth taking a chance on is Louis Oosthuizen at 40/1. As we all know, the South African is one of the most talented players in world golf, but doesn’t win nearly as much as he should have for someone of his quality. Amazingly, his only PGA Tour win is the 2010 Open Championship and he has the rather unenviable feat of finishing runner-up in every Major.
He might appear a curious choice for this given he hasn’t played since November, but he does have a tendency to go well fresh and has a good record in this event with a solo third in 2017 and then an 11th place finish in 2021, where a final round 71 cost him dear. He’s quite often underrated in the market and has the game to go very well again here if fully wound up.
