SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – When Scottie Scheffler outlasted Patrick Cantlay in a sudden-death playoff to win last year’s WM Phoenix Open, he earned his first PGA Tour title.
In short order, he vaulted to World No. 1 thanks to a run of four wins in six Tour starts, capped off by the Masters. In doing so, Scheffler kept the streak alive of marquee names winning at TPC Scottsdale.
Since Brooks Koepka, who was such a no-name at the time that the first tee starter called him Bruce Cupcake, earned his maiden Tour title in 2015, the list of winners is stout:
- Masters champ Hideki Matsuyama twice (2016, ’17)
- U.S. Open champ Gary Woodland (2018)
- Players champ Rickie Fowler (2019)
- U.S. Open champ Webb Simpson (2020)
- Koepka again (2021), who went on to win four majors
It reads like a future Hall of Fame roll call and is a refreshing change of pace from — no offense — the Mark Wilsons (2011), Kyle Stanleys (2012) and Kevin Stadlers (2014) of the world, which for many years tended to hoist the trophy at TPC Scottsdale.
So what qualities stand out among the winners of the WM Phoenix Open? For a time, TPC Scottsdale was tagged as a bomber’s paradise, where it favored players able to blast it over the trouble. Length trumped accuracy.
“Some of the guys dove deep into the stats and discovered you don’t have to swing for the fences every hole. All you have to do is get it in the fairway and give yourself more opportunities because the par 5s are reachable and 17 is drivable,” said Davis Love III. “Some of these guys have figured out a way to pick apart that course.”
Tony Finau hits out of a bunker on the 18th during the playoff at the 2020 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. (Photo: Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports)
Tony Finau, who lost in a playoff here in 2020, offered a different theory on why the cream tends to rise to the top at TPC Scottsdale.
“The greens are fast so you have to be a good putter and the best putters in the world putt well on fast greens,” he said. “When nerves are high, the guys who are good chippers and putters are the ones who are going to win tournaments.”
That may help explain why Phil Mickelson, who combined length and the cat-like skills of a burglar to escape trouble, won three times (1996, 2005, 2013) and finished second in 2008. But the Tour’s annual trip to the Valley of the Sun has been won by preeminent putters such as Aaron Baddeley (2007) and Fowler, short hitters like Wilson (2011) and Simpson,…
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