WM Open: Recap and Takeaway

Forward Tees:

Scottie Scheffler rounds back into form & defends his Waste Management Open title at TPC Scottsdale, in the PGA Tour's inaugural "Designated" event series.

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From the Tips:

After a late start due to a frost delay that would affect play for the duration of the tournament, after a blustering first round, it looked like a pair of Canadians were going to throw a party in the desert. Nick Taylor & Adam Hadwin fired off 66's, only to be outdone by Jason Day, who turned in a 65 after an impressive showing. Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm were in the hunt at T6 after a wraparound round 1 in a good position to make a move. All while a trio of heavyweights, Matsuyama, McIlroy and Morikawa struggled logging rounds of +3, +2, & +2, respectively. Morikawa missed the cut for the tournament, and never seemed to find his rhythm, much like Rory and Hideki.

The spectacle of the second round was a vintage Jordan Speith performance, as he turned in the lowest score of the day at 8 under (63) to put himself into the mix with Rahm & Schauffele at -8, trailing the co-leaders Scheffler and Hadwin, who were 10 shots below par. Hadwin would lose momentum and hold firm at -10 for the rest of the tournament. Fan favorite, Rickie Fowler, got into a groove posting a score of -5. His struggles over the previous two seasons have been well-documented, so to see him playing well is a welcome sight for fans.

Outside of a great round from Sam Burns (-7), the hordes of fans at TPC Scottsdale on Saturday mostly got a run of the mill showing from the field. Although, I'd say that didn't matter bc this tournament is the biggest party in sports and there are endless sources of entertainment and enjoyment. Nevertheless, after the conclusion of the 3rd round it appeared we were going to receive a duel between the top two players in the world (Rahm & Scheffler) as they went into Sunday, tied at -13 overall.

The finale for this tournament didn't come down to the wire, but an underdog inserted himself into the fray, and when the dust settled he proved himself a worthy opponent for the 2 best players in the world. This man of course is Nick Taylor, one of the previously mentioned Canadian players who seemed destined to win the day. That is until on the 13th hole, where Scheffler sank an eagle putt that gave him both the lead and deflated Taylor's hopes. Despite some missteps, Scheffler's uncanny ability to scramble out of trouble enabled him to cruise to a 2-shot victory, which elevated him back to world #1 ahead of The Genesis Open. Rumor has it there is going to be a big cat stalking the fairways at Riviera.