Waste Management Phoenix Open Predictions, Betting Odds & Top Picks

• Strong field assembled in the desert
• ASU Sun Devil alumni Jon Rahm returns to Arizona
• Webb Simpson defends his trophy

Waste Management Phoenix Open Odds

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Waste Management Phoenix Open Picks and Predictions

Young hotshot Will Zalatoris is the outright pick at +5000 with DraftKings Sportsbook

Martin Laird can land yet another course top 10 at +1200 with bet365

Back Russell Henley to defeat Sam Burns in their bet365 match bet at -125

Picks:

Will Zalatoris in the outright +5000 with DraftKings Sportsbook

Martin Laird to make the top 10 +1100 at DraftKings Sportsbook

Russell Henley to beat Sam Burns at -125 with bet365

How to Watch the Waste Management Phoenix Open

Waste Management Phoenix Open Profile

If it is Superbowl weekend it must also be time to party at TPC Scottsdale. Well, sort of. In a normal year the Arizona fans – and plenty more from all around the world – would be flocking through the gates to enjoy the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the stadium-like par-3 16th hole in particular.

This year some fans will be permitted to enter, but the wild scenes of the past won’t be repeated. For the players the examination remains the same – TPC Scottsdale is an exciting course that rewards attacking golf.

Jon Rahm leads the betting and he is desperate to win this event because he attended college at nearby Arizona State University. He has a good chance, too, because he’s played here five times and never finished worse than T16th.

Webb Simpson has an even stronger record on the course. The defending champion has logged seven top 20s in ten appearances, one of them his win and another a play-off defeat in 2017.

And then there is the question of Rory McIlroy – when will he win again? He’s broken par just twice in his last six final rounds and three times needed at least 73 blows. He’s got the game to win this week, but he needs to find the secret (which shouldn’t be a secret to someone as good as he is) to keeping a big score off his card at least once in the week.

Where There’s a Will

In the last year or so, 24-year-old Will Zalatoris has announced himself as a major talent on the world scene. In fact, he started 2020 outside the world’s top 600 and he enters this week ranked 53rd, on the brink of an important breakthrough because the world’s top 50 earn starts in Major Championships and the World Golf Championships.

Were he to win this week that leap would be a given and it looks like a live possibility. The key to the transformation of his rankings lies in the superb form he displayed on the Korn Ferry Tour in the early part of last year. In just 16 starts he landed 13 top 20s, ten of them top 10s including one win.

He followed that up with a sixth-place at the US Open and has maintained his run since, making it four top tens in seven PGA Tour starts with seventh last week at Torrey Pines. In those seven starts, he has proved his quality by climbing to fourth in the Strokes Gained Tee to Green rankings and that is a facet of the game which counts when playing TPC Scottsdale.

“I really control my own destiny,” Zalatoris told Golf Digest earlier this year. “I don’t have anything to lose.

I’m doing something I’ve wanted to do all of my life. Mathematically, I’ve got a card locked up for 2021-22 so I’m kind of playing with house money every single week. Either I win or I enjoy the experience of getting better.

DraftKings Sportsbook has gone industry best price of +5000 for the win and +900 for the top five. They are both cracking prices.

Home Comforts Suit Laird

Two years ago Scottsdale resident Martin Laird discussed the secret of his success in this tournament by saying: “I just like being at home this week and sleeping in my own bed.

I don’t play here very much in between the tournaments, but I practice out here a lot so I obviously feel comfortable out here.

This year he will tee it up for a 13th consecutive time and in the 12 previous starts he has landed four top tens.

This year he should return to the course encouraged by the fact that he started this season with a victory at another of his favorite courses in the desert, TPC Summerlin.

That win gives him extra security and with his card guaranteed for the next couple of years, he should be able to play with the handbrake off in conditions that suit.

bet365 rate Laird a +1200 chance to land another top 10 and that looks a value call this week.

Stick with Henley

A few weeks ago we profited from backing the currently ultra-consistent Russell Henley to better Kevin Na in a match bet, he duly delivered the goods, and this week he looks well worth another play.

bet365 has paired him with Sam Burns and, although Henley is the favorite, he still looks a little under-rated.

Over their careers, Henley leads the head-to-head count 25-15 and it’s an advantage that is even more pronounced in recent times because he is 9-4 clear since the start of 2020. In the tournament itself, Henley mopped up in 2019 and it was a tie 12 months ago.

Burns has played here twice and is yet to make a cut; Henley is 4-for-8 with two of his last four visits reaping top 20s. Burns opened his 2021 activity with a missed cut at the American Express and was then T18th last week at Torrey Pines.

I’m not entirely sure why that has him slotted against Henley, who has landed nine top 30s in his last 11 starts.

Back Henley’s reliability at -125.