Phoenix Open preview: Teeing up rowdiest week on PGA TOUR

The PGA TOUR's rowdiest week is here once again with the WM Phoenix Open serving as three parts party and one part golf.

The annual event held on Super Bowl weekend has become one of the most anticipated tournaments on the calendar, with enormous - often inebriated - crowds helping to produce the loudest experience of the year.

It's also become Scottie Scheffler's personal ATM, with the Texan coming into this year's event as the two-time defending champion. He'll look to become the first player to win the same tournament three years in a row on the PGA TOUR since Steve Stricker accomplished that feat at the John Deere Classic from 2009-2011.

When: Feb. 8-11
Where: TPC Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona

How to watch (all times ET)

Last year's result

Scheffler bested his 2022 winning score by three thanks to a final-round 65 to keep the title by two strokes over Nick Taylor. The 2022 Masters champion separated from the Canadian with an electric eagle on the par-5 13th Sunday and pushed that advantage to two with a clutch par on No. 16. He'd see the tournament through with a birdie on No. 17 and a par on No. 18 to regain the top spot in the Official World Golf Rankings.

Scheffler became the seventh player to win the Phoenix Open in back-to-back years and the first since Hideki Matsuyama in 2016-17. This event was also his jumping-off point as the 2022 triumph was his first on the PGA TOUR. He followed that up with a Masters win just two months later and claimed The Players Championship in March after last year's standout Phoenix Open performance.

Recent winners

2023: Scottie Scheffler (-19)
2022: Scottie Scheffler (-16)
2021: Brooks Koepka (-19)
2020: Webb Simpson (-17)
2019: Rickie Fowler (-17)
2018: Gary Woodland (-18)
2017: Hideki Matsuyama (-17)
2016: Hideki Matsuyama (-14)

Featured groups (all times ET)

Group: Jordan Spieth, Brian Harman, Max Homa
Round 1 - 9:53 a.m.
Round 2 - 2:33 p.m.

Group: Rickie Fowler, Grayson Murray, Tom Kim
Round 1 - 10:04 a.m.
Round 2 - 2:44 p.m.

Group: Shane Lowry, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sungjae Im
Round 1 - 10:15 a.m.
Round 2 - 2:55 p.m.

Group: Scottie Scheffler, Hideki Matsuyama, Wyndham Clark
Round 1 - 2:33 p.m.
Round 2 - 9:53 a.m.

Group: Justin Thomas, Adam Scott, Cameron Young
Round 1 - 2:44 p.m.
Round 2 - 10:04 a.m.

Group: Sam Burns, Si Woo Kim, J.T. Poston
Round 1 - 2:55 p.m.
Round 2 - 10:15 a.m.

Reasons to watch

Scottie 3-peat

Back-to-back wins on the PGA TOUR have become commonplace in recent years. However, completing the three-peat has proved too tough a task since 2011. Last year alone saw Viktor Hovland, Rory McIlroy, KH Lee, and Sam Burns unable to accomplish the feat. Scheffler gets that opportunity this week in Phoenix, and one has to feel confident in his ability to seal the deal. He has two wins and a seventh-place finish in his last three starts here since 2021. Scheffler also comes in with top-six results in two of his three starts this year.

Aces on No. 16

The tournament will see over 600,000 fans come through the turnstiles throughout the week, with Saturday serving as the biggest - and drunkest - show of the event. That ups the ante on the iconic par-3 16th, with Sam Ryder providing the most memorable moment in recent years in 2022.

Tiger Woods' historic ace is also one that'll never be forgotten. It represents an interesting time capsule, showing how much bigger the event has gotten since he joined the TOUR in the late 1990s.

Long-shot stories set to end

Wyndham Clark's weather-shortened 54-hole victory at Pebble Beach last week kept an incredible streak of long-shot winners rolling for this season. All five winners on the PGA TOUR have held at least 100-1 odds prior to the tournament. However, if there were ever an event for that run to end, it's the Phoenix Open. Every single one of the last eight tourney winners has also claimed either a major or Players Championship title. Kevin Stadler in 2014 is the only Phoenix Open winner in the last decade to hold odds of at least 100-1 heading into action.

Betting odds

Scottie Scheffler +450
Justin Thomas +900
Jordan Spieth +1,600
Max Homa +1,600
Sam Burns +2,200
Byeong Hun An +2,800
Wyndham Clark +2,800
Sahith Theegala +3,300
Sungjae Im +3,300
J.T. Poston +3,500
Matthew Fitzpatrick +3,500
Min Woo Lee +3,500
Tom Kim +3,500
Cameron Young +4,000
Hideki Matsuyama +4,000
Adam Hadwin +4,500
Eric Cole +5,000
Rickie Fowler +5,000

Odds via theScore Bet