The PGA Tour arrives at TPC Scottsdale for this week’s WM Phoenix Open. Designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and completed in 1986, the course has hosted the event for 38 consecutive years, becoming one of the most recognizable stops on the schedule.
Dubbed “The People’s Open,” the tournament draws nearly 750,000 spectators annually and is renowned for its electric atmosphere—none more famous than the raucous par-3 16th hole. With massive crowds, high energy and a layout that invites drama, the WM Phoenix Open routinely delivers one of the most memorable and unpredictable finishes of the season. In 15 of the past 19 years, the scoring margin has been one stroke and has included eight playoffs.
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While TPC Scottsdale offers plenty of scoring opportunities, it has proven far from a pure birdie-fest. The winning score has reached 20-under par only three times in the past 18 years, and over the past five editions scoring has averaged just -0.89 per round. Success here has consistently favored elite drivers and ball-strikers, with past champions including Scottie Scheffler (twice), Hideki Matsuyama (twice), Brooks Koepka, Jon Rahm, Rickie Fowler and Justin Thomas.
Distance and precision off the tee are especially valuable in the thinner desert air, where all three par 5s are reachable and can be aggressively attacked for crucial eagle and birdie opportunities. Course history also carries significant weight, as TPC Scottsdale ranks as the fourth-most predictive course on the PGA Tour based on past performance.
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World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler will make his second start of the season after earning his 20th PGA Tour victory at the 2026 American Express. He also checks in with his highest DraftKings price ever at $14,500. As is typical for this event, the field is absolutely loaded with talent, and features 11 of the top 20 players in the world, including Xander Schauffele, J.J. Spaun, Ben Griffin, Harris English, Viktor Hovland, Hideki Matsuyama, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young, Matt Fitzpatrick and Sam Burns.
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Here are my favorite plays and fades in each price range for the 2026 WM Phoenix Open DraftKings DFS slate.
$9,000+ range Play: Cameron Young, $9,800
Young shook off the rust in his first start of the season last week, finishing T-22 at the Farmers Insurance Open while gaining an impressive 4.9 strokes/ball-striking. At one of the tour’s premier driving venues, his strength off the tee paired with strong iron play from 150 to 200 yards, a range that accounts for 43 percent of approaches at TPC Scottsdale, sets up perfectly for success. Add in the best putting stretch of his career, gaining 0.71 strokes per round over his past 50 rounds, and the outlook gets even brighter considering he has gained a combined 12.6 strokes on these greens over his last two appearances, resulting in back-to-back top-12 finishes.
Play: Maverick McNealy, $9,100 
Orlando Ramirez
Though not as long as Young off the tee, McNealy is steadily adding distance thanks to newfound ball speed that is approaching 180 mph. More importantly, a drastic improvement in his mid- to long-iron play led to McNealy gaining strokes across the board in every strokes-gained category for the first time in 2025. With course history ranking as the fifth-most predictive factor at TPC Scottsdale, past performance carries extra weight in my Rabbit Hole model this week, and McNealy checks that box with consecutive top-10 finishes in his only two appearances here.
Fade: Viktor Hovland, $9,200
After an inconsistent 2025, Hovland started off the new campaign with a T-14 at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic two weeks ago. After his third round in Dubai, he remarked, “I really would like to be able to stand on the tee box and swing hard and know that the ball is going to go fairly straight.” While he remains one of the best approach players in the world, continued issues with his short game (ranks 73rd in the field in scrambling from short-grass areas) and lack of confidence off the tee is a major concern at a course where he has finished 42-MC-MC in his three trips to Scottsdale.
$8,000+ range Play: Jordan Spieth, $8,200 
Icon Sportswire
I’m all in on Spieth this week for a number of reasons. Since 2016, he has gained the fourth-most strokes at TPC Scottsdale with four T-6 finishes in his past five starts here. On a driver-heavy course, his driver has become a weapon, as he is gaining an average of 0.44 strokes off the tee over his past 50 rounds, the 11th-best mark in the field. Similar to McNealy, he has shown consistency over his past 75 rounds by gaining in every strokes-gained category, and he always carries the upside to spike any given week with his short game.
Fade: Harris English, $8,600
In a loaded $8K range this week, English stands out as the odd man out. His lack of positive course history, with four missed cuts in his past six starts at TPC Scottsdale, combined with a clear preference for longer, more difficult tracks, makes him a tougher fit for this setup.
Sign up for the industry’s leading data tool to make golf stats easy to decipher—head to BetspertsGolf.com now and get access to The Rabbit Hole for only $10 for your first month. Use promo code GD10 at sign up for this amazing deal! $7,000+ range Play: Kurt Kitayama, $7,600 
Mike Mulholland
For those building lineups around Scheffler this week, the $7K range offers a deep pool of viable options who pair well with Scottie. Kitayama is one player I will be heavily invested in due to his proficiency off the tee, ranking seventh in the field, his excellence on approach from 150 to 200 yards, where he ranks fifth, and his par-5 birdie or better percentage, which sits 13th in the field. The relative ease of these greens should help mitigate his putting weaknesses, especially considering he has still managed to gain a total of 4.5 strokes putting across 12 career rounds at TPC Scottsdale.
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$6,000+ range Play: Billy Horschel, $6,500 
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While there is plenty of upside in the $6K range this week with players like Akshay Bhatia, Michael Brennan, Nico Echavarria, Brian Harman and Ryan Fox, I am turning to one of the cagey veterans in the field in Billy Horschel. He has two recent top-10 finishes at TPC Scottsdale, and over the past five years on courses similar to this one, Horschel ranks second in the field at 1.98 strokes gained per round, trailing only Scottie Scheffler. While he does not possess an ideal off-the-tee profile for this layout, his consistency on approach and ability to score with his short game should keep him firmly in contention for a top half finish on the leader board.
Sign up for the industry’s leading data tool to make golf stats easy to decipher—head to BetspertsGolf.com now and get access to The Rabbit Hole for only $10 for your first month. Use promo code GD10 at sign up for this amazing deal!
Ron Klos (@PGASplits101 on X) is a PGA Tour data analyst for Betsperts Golf.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
