Odds Outlook: Betting favorite Scottie Scheffler has sights set on three straight at WM Phoenix Open

Waves of people crashing into the grandstands replace the waves of saltwater crashing against Pebble Beach as TPC Scottsdale hosts the WM Phoenix Open.

The West Coast Swing leaves California, albeit briefly, and the tranquility of Pebble Beach and 17-mile drive for the non-stop energy of “The People’s Open” and the Stadium Course. The field of 132 will be greeted by over 700,000 spectators over the four tournament days. Hole No. 16 will host 20,000 spectators daily alone.

“The Greenest Show” is an homage to WM and their efforts to recycle, reuse and reduce. Producing the most “green” over the last three seasons, Scottie Scheffler (+550) opens as a clear betting favorite at BetMGM Sportsbook as he looks to become the first champion to win three straight events on TOUR since 2011. TPC Scottsdale will always be the track where the Texan won for the first time in 2022. The No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Ranking entering this week defended his title in 2023, where he won by two shots. After cashing T7 in 2021, he will look to run his streak of top-10 paydays to four this week.

The warmth of the desert replaces the cashmere of the Monterey Peninsula, but that will not bother second choice Justin Thomas (+900). Running T3 in the California desert two weeks ago as he watched Nick Dunlap make history, the former Crimson Tide star kicked off 2024 on the podium.

Returning to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am for the first time since 2014 last week, he didn’t miss a beat. Squaring only one bogey in 54 holes, he pegged 45 of 54 GIR to cash T6. The chaos and revelry at TPC Scottsdale have not bothered the two-time PGA champion. Cashing T17 or better in seven of nine appearances, he’s played every edition since his 2015 debut and has played the weekend in the last six.

After a quiet start to 2024, Max Homa (+1600) will use this week to dial in his powers as he readies for a return next week to Riviera for The Genesis Invitational. The Californian, making his sixth consecutive start, has never packed up and gone home early. After breaking his streak of 11 consecutive finishes of T21 or better with T66 last week, it appears he and the rest of the field will have to navigate similar weather conditions as Pebble Beach for the first three rounds. Below-average temperatures will do well to push into the upper 50s as showers linger until sunshine appears on Sunday.

Coming off a career-best T6 in 2023, Sam Burns (+1600) returns for the sixth consecutive season to the largest sporting event, attendance-wise, outside the Olympics. Sitting in the driver’s seat late on Sunday in the La Quinta desert, the five-time TOUR winner could not close the deal and finished T6. After a week off, he returned and produced another top-10 result cashing 10th last week, adding four more rounds in the 60s.

With four top-10 paydays from seven visits, Jordan Spieth (+1600) will look to finally conquer the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale. Posting 61 in 2021 in Round 3, he matched the post-2014 renovation scoring record set by Wyndham Clark (+3300) in 2020. Posting 63 in Round 2 in 2023, he recorded the lowest round of the event, again. Making just his third start of 2024, he knocked the rust off last week at Pebble Beach with T39.

Sitting in the top 20 of Strokes Gained: Total and Scoring Average at the end of last season, Sungjae Im (+2800) will try to break out of a shaky West Coast Swing. In his last three events, the Korean hasn’t produced a paycheck inside the top 20 (T66-MC-T25). With two top-10 finishes from four starts, including his best, T6 in 2023, the TPC Scottsdale tonic could be the cure to what ails him

Here's a look at some of the other notable pre-tournament odds, via BetMGM:

• +3300: J.T. Poston, Min Woo Lee, Wyndham Clark
• +3500: Matt Fitzpatrick
• +4000: Byeong Hun An, Cameron Young, Eric Cole, Sahith Theegala, Tom Kim
• +5000: Adam Scott, Beau Hossler, Hideki Matsuyama (2016-17 winner)
• +5500: Adam Hadwin, Akshay Bhatia, Rickie Fowler (2019 winner), Si Woo Kim
• +6600: Tom Hoge, Alex Noren, Brian Harman, Corey Conners, Denny McCarthy, Shane Lowry, Thomas Detry, Emiliano Grillo
• +8000: Andrew Putnam, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Mark Hubbard
• +9000: Brendon Todd, Harris English, Keith Mitchell, Luke List, Patrick Rodgers, Taylor Montgomery, Kevin Yu
• +10000: Aaron Rai, Adam Schenk, Billy Horschel, Daniel Berger, Erik van Rooyen, Kurt Kitayama, Nick Taylor, Ryan Fox

How it works:

• A field of 132 players will be cut to the top 65 and ties.
• Purse of $8.8 million, with the winner taking home $1.584 million, plus 500 FedExCup points, an invitation to the Masters, THE PLAYERS and the 2025 Sentry.

Circle back tomorrow as I post more details in Horses for Courses.

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