Scottie Scheffler (Photo by Aaron O’Hara)
World number one and two-time champion Scottie Scheffler will be the player to beat at the Phoenix Open golf championships starting later this week.
Scheffler, who started his season with a bang by winning The American Express earlier this month, is also looking to win his third consecutive crown. He had also won the Procore championships to close out his season last year.
In six previous WM Phoenix Open starts, owns four top-10s including his two titles. The 2022 Phoenix Open marked his first career PGA TOUR title when he defeated Patrick Cantlay in a playoff.
He became the 40th player to reach 20 career wins at The American Express and the first since Rory McIlroy reached the milestone in 2021.
Scheffler is also seeking to become the fourth player to win the Phoenix Open three times, joining Mark Calcavecchia, Gene Littler, Phil Mickelson and Arnold Palmer. He is ranked in scoring average in Round 1 (67.45), Round 2 (68.00), Round 3 (68.40) and Round 4 (68.10) in 2025, becoming the first player since Tiger Woods in 2000 to lead the Tour all four categories in a single season.
While the top ranked ace showed his impeccable form in the season opener and send out his clear intentions of another remarkable year, two-time winner Brooks Koepka would be hoping to rebuild his Tour career.
Two time winner here, Koepka only managed to finish T56 in last week’s Farmers Insurance Open, his first start since re-joining the PGA Tour through the Returning Member Program.
The nine-time Tour winner and five-time major champion joined the rival LIV Tour but decided to return to the PGA fold.
Also in the field is Viktor Hovland, a seven-time Tour winner making his first start of the 2026 seasonm and Sahith Theegala.
Theegala enters this week coming off back-to-back top-10 finishes, T8 at the American Express and T7 at Farmers Insurance Open. He seeking his second career Tour title and first since the 2023 Procore Championship.
Ironically Justin Rose, who won the Farmers Insurance Open in record breaking style, will not be making his appearance in Phoenix.
However, nine players in the field, including Theegala, finished in the top 10 at last week’s Farmers Insurance Open – Pierceson Coody (T2), Si Woo Kim (T2), Ryo Hisatsune (T2), Jake Knapp (T5), Stephan Jaeger (T5), Andrew Novak (T7), Joel Dahmen (T7), Maverick McNealy (10th).
The field features 32 of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking and seven past champions led by Scheffler – Nick Taylor (2024), Koepka (2015, 2021), Webb Simpson (2020), Rickie Fowler (2019), Gary Woodland (2018), Hideki Matsuyama (2016, 2017).
2023 U.S. Open winner Wyndham Clark will be making his eighth career appearance in Phoenix Open. Clark owns five made cuts and one top-10 finish (2023/T10) in seven prior starts at TPC Scottsdale.
In nine career starts in the WM Phoenix Open, Jordan Spieth has recorded six top-10 finishes. Over the last three years, Spieth has finished no worse than T6 (2023/T6, 2024/T6, 2025/T4) and will be looking to improve on that record.
Hideki Matsuyama is one of three players in the field with multiple Phoenix Open titles after winning back-to-back years in 2016 and 2017. The winningest Asian player in Tour history with 11 wins is looking for his first Tour win since the 2025 Sentry.
Only three players have finished inside the top 20 in each of the first three events of the 2026 season – Pierceson Coody, Ryan Gerard and Kim Si Woo, and trio will be looking to maintain their fine form or go one better.
