Top Players Continue To Commit To WM Phoenix Open In Scottsdale

SCOTTSDALE, AZ —The WM Phoenix Open Presented By Taylor Morrison announced Tuesday that two more of the world's Top 10 golfers have committed to play the upcoming tournament, which will be held Feb. 7-13 at TPC Scottsdale.

Viktor Hovland, No. 5, and Xander Schauffele, No. 7, have committed to play the tournament, which now has a field scheduled to include five players ranked in the Top 10, 11 of the Top 20 and 22 of the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

Highlighting the group of already-committed golfers to the field are: No. 1 Jon Rahm, No. 6 Justin Thomas, No. 10 Hideki Matsuyama, No. 14 Jordan Spieth, and No. 17 Brooks Koepka.

PGA Tour members have until Feb. 4 to commit to playing in the tournament, which is expected to feature a field of 132 players. The WM Phoenix Open will have an $8.2 million purse, with the winner getting a $1,476,000 first-place check, and 500 FedExCup points.

Hovland, the Norwegian who committed to the tournament this week, had a victory, two runner-up finishes and two third-place finishes during the 2020-21 season. He will be making his second appearance at the WM Phoenix Open.

Schauffele, meanwhile, was a gold medal-winner for the U.S. at the 2021 Olympic Games and was part of the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team. He had three runner-up finishes on the tour last season.

The WM Phoenix Open, which is known as "The Greatest Show on Grass," is the best-attended golf tournament in the world with more than 700,000 fans regularly in attendance, according to the event's website.

In fact, the event has been named the Tournament of the Year by the PGA TOUR four times in the past seven years (2014, 2015, 2018, 2019).

The event is notorious for the 16th hole, a par-3 stadium hole that is enclosed by bleachers and skyboxes, which usually are filled with raucous fans.

"It's (Hole 16) going to be pretty wild. It seems like every year it gets crazier and crazier," Thomas said. "But it's so hard to control your adrenaline, you have so many juices pumping and you're kind of like hands are tingling and it's a little shaky. It's just, it's a great atmosphere, it's a great hole. The fans are unbelievable, they are what makes this event what it is."

The tournament also has a charitable component, and in 2021, the WM Phoenix Open raised more than $3.8 million dollars for charity. The tournament has raised more than $165 million for different causes in its 85-year history.

Earlier this month, the tournament announced that for a sixth straight year, fans will be admitted free of charge on Mon. Feb. 7 and Tuesday, Feb. 8 for the WM Phoenix Open practice rounds and Pro-Am as part of "Ford Free Days" sponsored by the Arizona Ford Dealers.

The Arizona Ford Dealers also will host Country Night at the Coors Light Bird's Nest on Feb. 10, which will feature performances by Sam Hunt and special guest Russell Dickerson.

Ticket information and tournament info are available on the WM Phoenix Open website.