2021 Waste Management Open: PGA Tour Betting Odds
The PGA Tour’s Waste Management Open is annually held on Super Bowl Weekend, and it usually is the biggest party on Tour – alas, that won’t be the case this year with the COVID pandemic. Jon Rahm is favoured on the golf odds.
Usually a CBS tournament on American television, the Waste Management Open airs on NBC when CBS has the Super Bowl – which it does have Super Bowl 55 between the Chiefs and Buccaneers on Sunday.
This event at the TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium course, a par 71 at 7,260 yards (opened in 1986), is also usually the highest-attended tournament on the PGA Tour each year. There will be around 5,000 fans allowed per day this year. Those patrons will have their temperature checked upon entry and masks will be mandatory. Normally, there are 16,000 fans alone at the par-3 16th during a given round and that’s known as “the most exciting hole in golf.”
It’s the 86th staging of this tournament (not consecutively), which began way back in 1932 as the Arizona Open. The 72-hole record is 28-under 256 by Mark Calcavecchia in 2001 and Phil Mickelson, who starred collegiately at nearby Arizona State University, in 2013. Both those guys have won this event three times, tied for the most with Arnold Palmer and Gene Littler.
In 2020, Webb Simpson birdied his final two holes Sunday to force a playoff with Tony Finau (both finished at 17-under 267) and then birdied the first extra hole for the victory. Simpson had a front-nine 29 on Friday and a hole-in-one at par-3 12th on Saturday. He was the first player to make a hole-in-one on the way to victory at a PGA Tour event since Francesco Molinari at the 2019 Arnold Palmer Invitational. It was the fourth time in the past five years the tournament went to a playoff. Simpson is +1400 to repeat.
The field is a bit watered-down this year because there’s a big-money European Tour event as well called the Saudi International and players are allowed appearances fees on the Euro Tour but not the PGA Tour. Guys such as world No. 1 Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, Patrick Reed (who won the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday), Finau and Mickelson are in the Middle East.
Waste Management Open Odds
Spain’s Rahm, ranked No. 2 in the world, is the +600 favourite; like Mickelson, he was a star at Arizona State. Rahm finished T7 on Sunday at the Farmers Insurance Open and has three Top 10s (yet to win) and no worse than a 16th-place finish in five visits to this event.
Justin Thomas is +750 and Xander Schauffele +800. Thomas has been third here each of the past two years. He didn’t play at the Farmers. Schauffele was one of five runners-up Sunday to Reed, who won by five shots. Xander has a best result of T10 in this tournament.
Rory McIlroy makes his first-ever start in the tournament and is +1200. He finished T16 on Sunday.
Canada’s George Knudson won this tournament in 1968 when it was called the Phoenix Open Invitational. It was the fifth of his eight career PGA Tour wins. Graham DeLaet finished runner-up by a shot to Kevin Stadler in 2014.
Adam Hadwin finished T40 last year, with Corey Conners T45, Nick Taylor T45, and Roger Sloan and Mackenzie Hughes missed the cut. Conners is +8000 this year (37th on Sunday) with Hadwin +9000 (T18 on Sunday) and Taylor +15000 (didn’t play last week)
Waste Management Open Predictions
Take Rahm and Thomas for Top 10s, but the best value wager to win is Bubba Watson at +5000. He has five Top 5 finishes here, including each of the past two years, but is yet to win. Bubba is very hit or miss these days as he missed the cut at the Farmers.