Scheffler Favourite for a Hattrick of Phoenix Wins

Scottie Scheffler is the 4/1 favourite with bookies BoyleSports for the Phoenix Open, which is due to get underway on Thursday at TPC Scottsdale.

Scheffler is bidding to win the third edition of the event in a row, having previously lifted the trophy in 2022 and 2023 and punters are latching onto the world number one to gain his first victory of the year, having recorded two top 10 finishes so far in 2024.

Course form can be crucial in golf, and Scheffler isn’t the only player in the field to have recorded multiple victories at Scottsdale, with 33/1 shot Hideki Matsuyama also a back-to-back winner of the Phoenix Open in 2016 and 2017, with LIV defector Brooks Koepka recording wins in 2015 and 2021.

Matsuyama recorded two top five finishes at Scottsdale in 2014 and 2015, before his successive wins in the following two years, and despite his injury struggles in recent years a run of form in late 2023 could propel him towards another Texas win at a course that he previously said he loves playing, with the famous crowd always ‘invigorating him’.

With the desert air playing into the hands of the big hitters, Justin Thomas has been well supported and finds himself as the 10/1 second favourite to record his 16th career win after two top 10 finishes this year, with a third-place finish at the America Express ensuring he travels in Texas in red-hot form while Min Woo Lee (25/1) looks to have an outside chance with punters’ balancing his length off the tee with his recent poor form.

Irish hopes rest on 200/1 outsider Seamus Power and major champion Shane Lowry, who will be hoping to halt a slide down the world rankings having dropped out of the top 50 for the first time since his Open Championship victory at Royal Portrush in 2019. The Offaly man hit a rare albatross on his way to a 25th place finish at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open and has been clipped into 50/1 from 60/1 to get back in the winners’ enclosure this week.

Brian O’Keeffe, spokesperson for BoyleSports, said: “Scottie Scheffler appears to tick all the boxes and he is a popular favourite to lift the trophy once again, but Irish punters are hopeful the raucous crowd in Scottsdale can inspire Shane Lowry as he steps up his Masters prep.”