Scottie gets it done at the Waste Management Open!
2023 WM Phoenix Open purse: Payout info, winner’s share at TPC Scottsdale
Buckle up, golf fans. We have a wild Sunday ahead at the WM Phoenix Open.
Not only do we have two of the world’s top three players set to battle for the title and the right to ascend to World No. 1, we also have a designated event purse: $20 million is up for grabs, including a sweet payday of $3.6 million for Sunday’s winner. That’s more than double the money at stake in “regular” PGA Tour events.
To put that increase in perspective, 65th place will take home $43,000 at TPC Scottsdale. At last week’s AT&T Pebble Beach, which featured a $9 million purse, 65th place earned $19,350.
Scottie Scheffler, 13 under par through 54 holes, holds a two-shot over Canadian Nick Taylor and Jon Rahm, who are 11 under. Jordan Spieth is lurking at 10 under alongside Adam Hadwin. And just four shots back is a bevy of big names: Rickie Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Jason Day, Sungjae Im and Tyrrell Hatton.
Given the drama that awaits on TPC Scottsdale’s closing holes, this will certainly be a tournament finish to remember.
You can check out the complete payout breakdown below.
WM Phoenix Open payout info, winner’s share
Win: $3,600,000
2: $2,180,000
3: $1,380,000
4: $980,000
5: $820,000
6: $725,000
7: $675,000
8: $625,000
9: $585,000
10: $545,000
11: $505,000
12: $465,000
13: $425,000
14: $385,000
15: $365,000
16: $345,000
17: $325,000
18: $305,000
19: $285,000
20: $265,000
21: $245,000
22: $225,000
23: $209,000
24: $193,000
25: $177,000
26: $161,000
27: $155,000
28: $149,000
29: $143,000
30: $137,000
31: $131,000
32: $125,000
33: $119,000
34: $114,000
35: $109,000
36: $104,000
37: $99,000
38: $95,000
39: $91,000
40: $87,000
41: $83,000
42: $79,000
43: $75,000
44: $71,000
45: $67,000
46: $63,000
47: $59,000
48: $55,800
49: $53,000
50: $51,400
51: $50,200
52: $49,000
53: $48,200
54: $47,400
55: $47,000
56: $46,600
57: $46,200
58: $45,800
59: $45,400
60: $45,000
61: $44,600
62: $44,200
63: $43,800
64: $43,400
65: $43,000
SOURCE [GOLF.com]
Pebble Beach's Monday Finish
NEWS
Justin Rose leads by two at AT&T Pebble Beach as players prepare for Monday finish
- Justin Rose's impressive fairway bunker shot and eagle at AT&T Pebble Beach
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. – Playing golf sunrise to sunset on the Monterey Peninsula sounds like a delectable opportunity, even when the weather comes at you with an assortment of conditions from hail to sunshine and everything in between.
To know that you can have a few more holes on Monday morning with a chance to win $1.62 million is . . . well, it’s this year’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am where Justin Rose started his day with some fire at Monterey Peninsula CC and ended it with some early-evening magic at Pebble Beach to put his name atop the leaderboard.
Buoyed by a scintillating 215-yard bunker shot to set up a 6-foot eagle at the par-5 sixth and then a deft 20-foot birdie putt at the par-3 seventh, Rose pushed into a two-shot lead in an effort to win for the first time on the PGA TOUR since the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open.
The 42-year-old Englishman was 3-under in the final round, 15-under for the tournament when he ran out of daylight walking down the 10th fairway. He will return Monday morning to hit a 143-yard approach into the No. 10 green and continue through Pebble’s back nine.
He’ll have plenty of company close behind, because playing competitor Peter Malnati is sitting at 13-under, tied with Brendon Todd and Denny McCarthy, both of whom will return to face birdie putts – Todd from 8 feet at No. 13, McCarthy 14 feet at No. 16.
Taylor Pendrith, one of 20 players to finish their fourth rounds before play was called , closed with a 64 – 275 to have the clubhouse lead at 12-under. But clearly this is not Pendrith’s tournament to win, it’s Rose’s.
And should the Englishman snap a stretch of 67 PGA TOUR tournaments without a victory, he’ll likely give credit to his heroics at the sixth hole.
“No, it’s not comfortable,” said Rose of his position in the bunker down the left side of the fairway. The second shot at the sixth is a blind shot up and over a massive hill that feels like a mountain.
Rose weighed his options – a high 7-iron, perhaps? – before settling on a 4-iron that required him to hit it flush. Rose pulled it off. “I was really focused, just made sure I hit the back of the ball,” he said.
“You’ve got to strike it. You know that if you catch it half-an-inch fat, you could be in the ravine. Obviously, for it to climb up there to 6 feet (was a bit fortunate). But I did my part. I struck it, stayed out of trouble, committed to it.”
That it led to an eagle and ushered him into a birdie at the seventh and a gut-check par at the demanding par-4 eighth was a huge relief to Rose.
He had returned to Pebble Beach for his fourth round after having played 10 holes in 6-under at Monterey Peninsula CC to seize the lead at 12-under, but a sloppy bogey at Pebble’s pedestrian opening hole almost sucked all the air out of his great morning.
The play at the sixth “was a momentum builder,” said Rose, who focuses not on his lengthy skid but his positive play of late (four straight cuts made, a top 10 and two top 20s).
“I’ve been trending,” he said.
Were you to narrow your focus to just Sunday’s partial final round at Pebble, no one was trending quite like McCarthy, a veritable putting machine when he gets it cooking. Surely, he did over Pebble’s front nine as he rolled in seven birdie putts that totaled no more than 27 feet.
“A great day. I felt really comfortable all day,” said McCarthy, who played nine holes at Monterey Peninsula CC to finish Round 3, then came to Pebble and hit five shots inside of 15 feet.
Whether McCarthy can maintain his roll, or whether he has enough holes to catch Rose and win for the first time on the PGA TOUR remains to be seen. But the onetime University of Virginia standout does know this – he has finally seen what all the hoopla is about when people talk about “Pebble weather.”
“I’ve played this tournament three times before and had perfect weather,” he said. “So this is the year, I guess, that I was due to get some bad weather.”
SOURCE: [pgatour.com]
The Golf World is heating up!
Weekly Read Fore! Things: Max Homa's Rally, Jon Rahm's Run and Two Cuts Made in One Week
The Farmers Insurance Open had a impressive winner with Max Homa's Sunday rally, and a rare story in 72nd place.
Fore! Things
1. Max Homa’s victory at the Farmers Insurance Open was impressive in many ways, including rallying from five back. His final-round 66 was one of just 11 scores under par and one of just three—along with Keegan Bradley and Jason Day—under 69.
2. Jon Rahm was unable to pull off a third straight victory, but there is no shame in another top 10. Starting with the FedEx St. Jude—the PGA Tour’s first playoff event last August—Rahm has gone T5, T8, T16, T2, win, T4, win, T8, win, win, T7.
3. U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick is the only top-10 player in the world entered at Pebble Beach this week. Jordan Spieth is also in a field that has just 22 of the top 100 in the world.
4. Harold Varner defends his title at the PIF Saudi International, the Asian Tour event that will see nearly every LIV Golf player tee it up. Bubba Watson is making his first start since having a knee procedure following last year’s PGA Championship.
Fore! More Things
1. After contending the week prior in Abu Dhabi, Padraig Harrington, 50, shot an opening-round 81 in Dubai—then bounced back with a 16-shot improvement, a 65. He still missed the cut.
2. Circumstances allowed Scott Brown to play in two events last week, not without controversy. Brown made the cut at the Korn Ferry Tour event in the Bahamas, which concluded on Wednesday. But because he got into the field at the Farmers Insurance Open, he withdrew to head to San Diego. It’s hard to pass up a PGA Tour start and it was also impossible for Brown to know he’d get in. He ended up finishing 72nd after shooting 77-77 over the final two rounds.
3. LIV Golf is expected to fill out the rest of its 48-player field for the start of its league season this week while the Saudi International tournament is being played outside of Jeddah. But this announcement has been delayed several times.
4. There are 66 days until the first round of the Masters.
SOURCE: [si.com]
Jon Rahm gets it done!
Jon Rahm earns fourth title in five starts at The American Express
Jon Rahm wins second title of 2023 at The American Express
LA QUINTA, Calif. – Jon Rahm shares a group chat with two accomplished NFL pros, Arizona Cardinals tight end Zach Ertz and recently retired defensive lineman J.J. Watt. “Complete golf nerds,” he describes them. Rahm appreciates the commitment and grind to sustain success for a long period of time, notably Watt’s dietary sacrifices to maintain optimal health and recovery levels throughout his career as a three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year. “I mean, eating 10 dry chicken breasts a day has to get old very quickly,” Rahm said. In the highly competitive world of professional sports, someone’s always coming for those at the mountaintop. Rahm is playing some of the world’s best golf, if not the best, and uncovering all possible clues is essential to maintaining that edge. Rahm’s current recipe is proving quite effective. He carded a four-round total of 27 under at The American Express for a one-stroke victory over TOUR rookie Davis Thompson, his fourth win in five official starts worldwide. With his ninth career PGA TOUR title, he moves atop the FedExCup standings and continues one of the more impressive hot streaks in recent memory at the game’s highest level. Two weeks ago, Rahm rallied from six strokes back in the final seven holes to edge Collin Morikawa at the Sentry Tournament of Champions. This week, Rahm shared the 54-hole lead with Thompson at 23 under, and a steady Sunday sufficed. The ultimate edge came at the par-5 16th hole. Rahm’s second shot flirted with a cavernous bunker on the Stadium Course’s iconic San Andreas hole before settling in the fairway, 33 yards from the hole. He pitched to 9 feet and drained the putt, which caught the lip and spun nearly all the way around before dropping. Rahm felt a comfort level Sunday in the California desert, cultivated through a work ethic that he describes as “obsessive.” It translated to a trophy. “I think today was about as comfortable as I’ve been in a long time on the golf course, tee to green,” Rahm said Sunday evening. “Every time I felt like this in the past, I’ve ended up going on to win, just because it takes a lot of pressure off a lot of parts of my game, knowing that basically I’m going to hit the shot that I’m envisioning. And that’s a really unique zone to put yourself in. “That doesn’t happen as often as I wish. I wish I could be like that every single time, that I know I’m going to stripe it into the middle of the fairway and hit the shot at the pin. But it doesn’t always happen. So I’m glad I enjoyed a day like that today.” The victories are nice, and Rahm intends to savor this one. Four wins in five official starts is rarified air. But he knows that for those who wish to remain among the game’s elite, there’s no time for complacency. The search for the extra edge is eternal. That’s where observation of other peak performers comes in. For Rahm, a notable source of inspiration is the late Kobe Bryant, the five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers and 18-time NBA All-Star. Rahm felt a connection with Bryant around “obsession” for the craft, and although he takes work-life balance seriously as a husband and father raising a young family, he knows the importance of recognizing the traits that brought him to the game’s highest level – and can keep him there long-term. “I spent a lot of time (in college) listening to a lot of his interviews and videos, because I see a lot of similarities between us in the way we approach our craft,” Rahm said. “Because ‘craft’ is the key word for Kobe. And having that obsessiveness that we both have over the game, it’s somebody to learn from for sure. “Work ethic beats talent any day of the week, period. And I like to think that I have a really hard work ethic and I put a lot of time in.” Talent is key to earning a PGA TOUR card, but it’s the intangibles that separate good from great. How can you find that extra stroke that so often proves the difference, as it did Sunday for Rahm? J.T. Poston played in Sunday’s final grouping alongside Rahm and Thompson, carding a closing 68 for a T6 finish, his fourth consecutive top-21 showing on TOUR. Poston has hit a stride in the past year, earning his second TOUR title at the John Deere Classic last summer and moving to the fringes of potential Presidents Cup captain’s selection. Poston is an established TOUR pro with an eye on taking the next step into the game’s elite. A Sunday in the final group with Rahm proved instructive. “You knew what kind of heater he was on and how good he was playing and the scores he’s been shooting,” Poston said. “You knew he was going to be hard to beat. Watching him today, he obviously played great, but my takeaway is that he’s human too. He didn’t go out there and shoot 64 again and just blow everybody away; he had to earn it. “For somebody that’s watching from a distance, it almost gives you a little bit of confidence where you’re like, ‘OK, that’s the guy who’s obviously playing the best of anyone in the world right now, and he’s still making mistakes, he’s not perfect.’ It gives you confidence that you don’t have to be perfect, and you can go out and win too.” Rahm is doing plenty of winning these days. He’ll keep striving to uncover clues in the quest to remain on the “elite” side of the razor-thin edge between elite and very good. Just don’t expect him to adopt Watt’s chicken diet. SOURCE: [PGATour.com]
