This week we have a loaded field event as the players head to Scottsdale to tee it up at the 2022 Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale. Ball striking, course history and recent form will be the main things that I am looking at here in terms of narrowing down the 132 player field.
Best of the Best (factoring in salary)
- Viktor Hovland, $10,200
An elite ball striker who comes into this one on an absolute heater and is priced reasonably? He’ll be popular this week – but I think this is a case of some good chalk, and I do still think that he will check in lower owned than he probably should be this week given how strong he’s been playing of late. He picked up his third win in his past five tournaments at the Dubai Desert Classic – and even though he doesn’t have much of a track record at The Waste Management Open, I do think that his game is a great fit for the course and I like his chances of being in the mix this weekend at TPC Scottsdale.
- Russell Henley, $8,200
Henley has a couple of strong finishes so far in 2022, with a 2nd place finish at The Sony Open and a 13th place finish at The Amex. An elite ball striker, Henley is a regular option that I tout regularly when his game is on, and I like what I have seen from him lately. He comes into this one ranked 2nd on tour in the 2021-22 season in SG: APP, and 4th in SG: TTG. He’s above average off of the tee – and all in all, the course is a great fit for him and his game. For a reasonable price, he’s a great mid-priced option this week.
- Max Homa, $7,600
Homa has had some strong showings at the Waste Management in his career, making the cut 3/3, including a T6 finish in 2020. He’s an above average ball striker, and has shown the ability to play with the best of them in strong field events when his game is on. He won’t be overly popular this week, but I do like the upside at an affordable price at what I would expect would be single digit ownership levels for contests this week as a pivot off of Luke List and Talor Gooch (who are great plays in their own right, but options that I think will be higher owned than Homa).
Cheat Sheet – DraftKings and FanDuel
We have grouped players into 3 key tiers based on price point.
You can also access a player’s “FC Player Card” by clicking their name or salary. This will bring up key news, stats and match-up data to help guide you along the way for their game that day.
| $ Tier | G |
|---|---|
| High | Jon Rahm (11.6k / 81.66) (12.1k / 81.66) |
| Viktor Hovland (10.2k / 72.43) (11.7k / 72.43) | |
| Hideki Matsuyama (10.4k / 68.12) (11.5k / 68.12) | |
| Medium | Xander Schauffele (9.7k / 65.54) (11.4k / 65.54) |
| Russell Henley (8.2k / 60.97) (9.9k / 60.97) | |
| Scottie Scheffler (9.1k / 70.51) (11k / 70.51) | |
| Sam Burns (9.3k / 68.13) (10.8k / 68.13) | |
| Corey Conners (8.3k / 64.70) (10.1k / 64.70) | |
| Tony Finau (8.9k / 56.44) (10.9k / 56.44) | |
| Low | Talor Gooch (7.8k / 65.03) (10k / 65.03) |
| Luke List (7.7k / 58.27) (9.6k / 58.27) | |
| Max Homa (7.6k / 55.73) (9.5k / 55.73) | |
| Matt Kuchar (7.4k / 45.43) (9.3k / 45.43) | |
| Joel Dahmen (7.4k / 56.65) (9.2k / 56.65) | |
| Doug Ghim (6.6k / 53.00) (8k / 53.00) | |
Our cheat sheets highlight the core plays (including some contrarian candidates) that we like the most on the slate and, as a result, would recommend a higher level of exposure to on the whole. It is not an exhaustive list, and if you are a multi-entry GPP player, you may decide to ultimately have a larger player pool to work from. Our hope is that this gives you a tight group of players to heavy-up your exposure to.
Best of luck in your contests this week and over the entirety of the 2022 PGA Season!!
