WM Phoenix Open: Saturday tee times, latest betting odds

It’s tight at the top at the halfway point of the 2022 Waste Management Phoenix Open

What a weekend we are set up for down in the desert, a tightly contested leaderboard filled with some of the biggest names in the world are ready to take the stage this weekend at the TPC Scottsdale Stadium Course.

Can sensational young player Sahith Theegala hang on at the top of the leaderboard? it’s a spot he has occupied for the majority of this year’s Phoenix Open. The 24-year-old is taking full advantage of a sponsor exemption that got him into this week’s tournament in Scottsdale. He sets the pace at the halfway point at 12 under par, a score that has given him a two-stroke cushion heading into Saturday’s third round.

Theegala won’t be able to rest this weekend, however, as some of the worlds best are right on his heels. Four-time major winner Brooks Koepka sits just two shots back at 10 under par, and he will be looking to defend in the desert after winning here last year.

Five-time Tour winner and Olympic gold medalist Xander Schauffele also enters the third round at 10 under par. Schauffele whose last Tour win came at the Tour Championship in 2020 will have an anxious wait on Saturday morning as he awaits the results of one final COVID test before his round can begin. Xander’s caddie tested positive earlier in the week and as a close contact Schauffele has been required to test at the beginning of each round so far.

Patrick Cantlay sits just one shot further back and three off the lead, he has made a solid start on his Phoenix Open debut this week posting rounds of 67, and 66 through his opening two rounds. Adam Hadwin, Talor Gooch, and last year’s Genesis Invitational winner Max Homa round out the current top-five at eight under par, four shots off the lead.

The WM Phoenix Open has a history of come from behind winners, so no lead will feel safe even going into the final round on Sunday. It’s all set up to be an enthralling weekend this week in the desert.

Featured Saturday Tee-times at the WM Phoenix Open

Carlos Ortiz, Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm  ( Tee 1: 12:28 pm EST)

Keegan Bradley, Hideki Matsuyama, Patton Kizzire  (Tee 1: 1:01 pm EST)

Max Homa, Alex Noren, J.T. Poston  (Tee 1: 1:23 pm EST)

Patrick Cantlay, Adam Hadwin, Talor Gooch  (Tee 1: 1:34 pm EST)

Sahith Theegala, Brooks Koepka, Xander Schauffele  (Tee 1: 1:45 pm EST)

Brooks Koepka is the betting favorite through two rounds to win the WM Phoenix Open for a third time

(Brooks Koepka +325)

We are getting Deja-vu vibes with Brooks Koepka this week, much like last year, the 20th ranked player in the world finds himself in contention once again at the WM Phoenix Open after coming into this week with very little form to speak of.

Koepka won the Phoenix Open in 2021 after coming into the week on the back of three straight missed cuts. Things aren’t quite so bad this time, but he hasn’t found himself anywhere near the top 10 in an event since the Hero World Challenge in early December last year, and that was only a twenty-man field in the Bahamas.

Since then Brooks has made two starts resulting in a T-28th finish at the Sentry Tournament Of Champions, and a missed cut at the Farmers a few weeks ago. Koepka was not too pleased when hearing that he was 20th in the Official World Golf Rankings earlier in the week, going so far as to call it “embarrassing”, he can begin his ascent back up the rankings with a win this week and also join an elite group of past Phoenix Open Champions to have won this event three times.

(Xander Schauffele +375)

Through two rounds at the WM Phoenix Open, Xander Schauffele leads the field in strokes gained tee to green (+4.85). His odds reflect just how well he has been playing this week as he is the second favorite on the board to achieve something that he fell just short of last year, winning at TPC Scottsdale.

Xander finished 2nd here in 2021 and he has really played well at this event in previous starts doing everything but winning at the Phoenix Open, he was 2nd in 2021, 16th in 2020, 10 in 2019, and 17th in 2018.

It’s been a while since the Olympic Champion has won on Tour and while some would argue that his win last summer was not equivalent to a big win on the PGA Tour or in a major, Schauffele would certainly disagree “Do you count the Olympics as a win? I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten more recognition or attention for the Olympics and the gold medal than more than I’ve ever imagined. I think the longer that marinates, the better it gets for me. At first I didn’t just because it was just new and people were telling me no. And then I kind of sat down and looked at it and I was like, Hmm, screw everybody else, like I think this is a win,” he said. 

He is well-positioned at the halfway point to win here this time.

(Patrick Cantlay +500)

The world number 4 regularly finds himself in contention now, pretty much every event he commits to he is around the top 10 on the leaderboard at some point. You have to go back to the WGC-Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational last August to find a finish outside of the top twenty.

Cantlay is on a run of five straight top 10 finishes and once again he finds himself near the top of the leaderboard this week. He is making his first-ever appearance at the Phoenix Open, but so far that doesn’t seem to be hindering him at all. It would be a shock if Cantlay faded over the weekend, and it would surprise nobody if he was the winner come Sunday.

(Sahith Theegala +800)

It’s been a great story so far for Theegala, but with the big names behind him on the leaderboard, the books clearly don’t have him as the favorite to win this week, despite the fact that he leads by two going into Saturday.

Theegala has faced adversity already once this week though after he was unable to complete his first round on Thursday, instead he had to come back early Friday to complete his opening round. Sahith shot two-over-par on the final two holes of his first round on Friday, but he didn’t let that get to him as went right back out for his second round and fired off a 64, seven under par round.

The word remarkable may not suffice when describing the events of this week should Theegala indeed close this thing out over the weekend.

(Talor Gooch +1400)

Gooch picked up his first PGA Tour win last year at the RSM Classic and after a 64, seven under par showing in his second round on Friday he once again finds himself near the top of the leaderboard. He has had mixed results at the WM Phoenix Open in three appearances so far with two missed cuts in 2021 and 2019, and a 61st place finish here in 2020.

Talor has made the cut in three of four events to begin 2022 with two top 20 finishes over that span. The 30-year-old is clearly a much-improved golfer now than he was during some of his previous visits to TPC Scottsdale, and his presence near the top of the board this week should not be taken lightly.

Odds provided in this article are courtesy of WynnBet and are current at the time of publication.