Golf betting tips, Phoenix Open predictions and preview
Phoenix Open betting tips
Super Bowl LVIII may be hogging the sporting headlines this weekend, but one of the biggest sporting parties in town takes place at TPC Scottsdale where potentially 700,000 fans could be present for the Phoenix Open.
Things can get pretty rowdy at the world’s best-attended golf tournament, especially at the iconic par-three 16th, where a boisterous crowd went absolutely wild two years ago, throwing hundreds of beer cans onto the green after Sam Ryder aced a hole in one in the third round.
After losing its Signature Event status with a reduced prize pot as a consequence, the field lacks the quality of last week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but world number one Scottie Scheffler is back again, bidding to win the Phoenix Open for a third successive time.
Scheffler understandably starts as a 9/2 favourite to complete the hat-trick as we trawl through the best golf betting sites for this week’s three picks in Arizona.
Elite winner expected in desert
A roll call of past champions from the last 10 years suggests the 2024 winner of the Phoenix Open will come from the top end of the market, with Scheffler, Brooks Koepka and Hideki Matsuyama all coming out on top twice previously.
Length is an advantage at the Stadium Course which has generous fairways, and the thinner air from being positioned at more than 1,500 feet above sea level meant the average drive last year was 313.6 yards, but supreme ball-strikers will also fare well at this desert track.
Twelve months ago, Scheffler said it was possible to “birdie almost every hole on the back nine when you’re hitting the right shots”, and that’s something the American has been doing since he won here for the first of his six PGA Tour titles, two years ago.
Scheffler topped the strokes gained: tee to green charts last season and is fourth in the current chart headed by Justin Thomas, who also has an excellent record at TPC Scottsdale where he has finished in the top 10 on four of his last five visits.
Both players are in excellent form and although Scheffler deserves to be favourite, his recent putting problems mean we’re siding with fellow Ryder Cup team-mate Thomas to get over the line for the first time since his US PGA triumph in May 2022.
Thomas also had his problems last year, but momentum is clearly on his side with half-a-dozen successive top-six finishes and a quick check on gambling sites shows Betfred are offering 11/1 for him to get back to winning ways.
Solid Kim can rise in Phoenix
Looking further down the field on betting apps for each-way value, there are plenty of candidates to occupy the places such as two-time winner Matsuyama, who has made a solid start to the new year despite an underwhelming performance at Pebble Beach.
Jordan Spieth has four top 10s from seven previous appearances in Arizona, but he struggled to get anything going last week in a mid-table finish.
Instead, it may be worth taking a chance on 2017 Players champion Si Woo Kim who has won four times on the PGA Tour, his most recent coming at the Sony Open in Hawaii just over a year ago.
The South Korean’s record in Phoenix hardly leaps off the page, but he enjoyed his best performance here 12 months ago with a top-25 finish.
More encouragingly, Kim was third in the strokes gained: tee to green metric at Pebble Beach where he finished in a tie for 14th in a tournament cut short by the weather.
His putting is hardly in great shape, but he may not need the flatstick to be in peak condition to win here and he has made an encouraging start to the year with three top 25s in four outings.
Kim can be backed at 60/1 with bet365, who offer five places, or 55/1 with BetMGM for an extra sixth place.
Stallings can make fast start
It’s been 10 years since Scott Stallings last tasted victory on the PGA Tour, so it’s probably a tall order for him to end his drought, but he looks an interesting prospect in the first-round leader market.
Stallings has burst out of the blocks in all three tournaments in 2024: seventh at the Sony Open in Hawaii, fifth at The American Express, where he missed the cut, and he was inside the top 20 at Torrey Pines.
The American took last week off, so he should be nice and fresh for the trip to TPC Scottsdale where he has finished inside the top 40 in his last three appearances.
Last year, Stallings birdied the last two holes to end Thursday just one shot off the lead which means his last three opening rounds at the Stadium Course read 66-67-67, so he certainly seems to fit the bill for a lightning start at a three-figure price.
Bet365 are offering 125/1 for Stallings to top the round-one leaderboard and that finishes off our Phoenix Open predictions nicely.
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Warren Barner is an experienced sports journalist who has spent the last few years writing for Ladbrokes, Coral, Bwin and PokerStars/BetStars. He covers football, tennis and golf and is a lifelong York City fan.
