February 04-07
TPC Scottsdale, Scottsdale, Arizona
$7,300,000
Round 2, Round 3, Round 4

Fans are back this week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open with attendance capped at 5,000. A small number for an event that typically has the highest attendance on the PGA Tour (over 700,000 in 2018) but the most allowed since the start of the pandemic, making for an unusually quiet event.

"Probably made the quietest almost hole-in-one ever on 16," said co-leader Matthew NeSmith. "I got about six claps there and hit it to 6 inches."

"When there's a lot of people it almost becomes white noise," said Xander Schauffele. "Out here, I chunked my chip and some guy was like, 'Dang, he duffed it'. I'm like, 'Yeah, you're right, I just duffed the crap out of that chip.'"

NeSmith and Mark Hubbard fired 8-under 63s for a one-shot lead over Nate Lashley and Sam Burns.

"I'm just trying to keep it in play, keep it in the short grass, give my irons a chance to speak for themselves, and that's usually how I play my best golf," said NeSmith.

Hubbard made birdies on five of his last six holes to tie NeSmith with a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th.

"I kind of found a little something in my swing," said Hubbard. "Earlier in the day I was kind of whipping it a little inside, so I kind of straightened my takeaway a little bit, and that kind of got things in motion."

Lashley, who played for the University of Arizona and lives in Scottsdale, is enjoying being able to play at home on a course he knows well.

Burns made nine birdies and two bogeys on the par-4s 6th and 11th to join Lashley at 7-under.

Steve Stricker, who will captain the U.S. Ryder Cup Team at Whistling Straits later this year and was playing with fellow captain Padraig Harrington, lies two shots behind the leaders at 6-under.

"I made some putts," said Stricker. "Felt like the old Steve Stricker. I am old, but I don't feel 53 or 4. I feel like I still have a little bit of game left in me."

“These guys, they all hit it 300 plus, 320s, 330s, and I'm just trying to get it in the fairway and get it up to 280. So the game has changed.”

Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Ted Potter Jr., Keegan Bradley, Kyoung-Hoon Lee and Xander Schauffele are all tied for sixth place at 5-under.

"The greens are perfect," said Schauffele. "If you hit a good putt today, they were going in."

Schauffele's playing partner, Rory McIlroy, started his round on the 10th with a double-bogey then bogeyed the 11th before making five birdies for a 70.

"It was a good battle back," said McIlroy. "Being 3 over through two isn't ideal, especially on this golf course where you sort of need to make birdies."