PGA Tour Betting Picks and Guide: Waste Management Open (2022)

The “People’s Open” is officially upon us this weekend in Scottsdale, AZ, as some of the best golfers in the world will tee it up looking to bring home the winner’s prize money. In what is annually held over Super Bowl weekend, this year’s field is as stacked as any in recent memory and features two two-time winners in Hideki Matsuyama and Brooks Koepka.

With four playoffs in the past six years and no one since Phil Mickelson in 2013 winning the event by more than 2 strokes, this is a tournament that never disappoints. Let’s take a closer look at the course and field to identify where the value remains.

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Previous Winners of the Waste Management Open

• 2021: Brooks Koepka
• 2020: Webb Simpson
• 2019: Rickie Fowler
• 2018: Gary Woodland
• 2017: Hideki Matsuyama

Course Preview (TPC Scottsdale)

Finally, the same course all week. After three weeks of the Tour being hosted across multiple courses, all four rounds this week will be played at TPC Scottsdale. Known for its sometimes hostile crowds and raucous environment, rarely do first-time players here do well for that very reason.

As for the course itself, it sits just above the Tour average (7,200 yards, Par 71) and is known for some of the longest drives all season long in part to the desert climate. As for the greens, players can expect the usual hybrid grass, with a Poa base. Ranking well below average, putting doesn’t get much easier than here at TPC.

Relevant Betting Stats

• SG: Approach
• Par 4 Efficiency
• SG: Putting on Poa Hybrid

Outright Betting Picks

Hideki Matsuyama (+1400 on DraftKings Sportsbook)

Looking to join the likes of Mickelson, Arnold Palmer, Gene Littler, and Mark Calcavecchia as the only players to win this event three times; Matsuyama has all the tools to do it. A true “horse for the course”, Hideki has dominated TPC Scottsdale in his seven starts (not including a 2018 start he withdrew in round 1 with an injury.

In those seven starts, Hideki has two outright wins, four top 5s, and six top 20’s, showing a level of dominance rarely shown anywhere on Tour. As of late, Hideki has been dialing it in as well. In his seven starts to get 2021-22 started, Matsuyama has made every cut and finished T30 or higher in five.

Oh and he’s already won twice, as well.

Look for the Matsuyama to continue his torrid play in this one on a course he knows better than any.

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