One of the game’s rising stars, Morikawa’s first season on the PGA TOUR (2019) began in historic fashion with 22-consecutive cuts made, falling short only to Tiger Woods’ TOUR record of 25. Since then, the 25-year-old University of California alum has racked up five wins including his two Major victories (2020 PGA Championship and the 2021 Open Championship), as well as an additional five runner-up finishes in only 77 TOUR starts. In those starts, Morikawa has finished in the Top-25 a total of 38 times, a nearly 50-percent clip. Outside of the PGA TOUR, Morikawa became the first American to win the European TOUR’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship, Dubai and the first American to win the Race to Dubai. Morikawa was a member of the victorious 2020 US Ryder Cup team (played in 2021 due to COVID), a captain’s pick for the 2022 US Presidents Cup team and is currently ranked No. 11 in the Official World Golf Ranking. This will be Morikawa’s second appearance at the WM Phoenix Open (T-25 in 2020).
Since turning professional in 2007 as a 17-year-old, Finau has found the PGA TOUR winner’s circle five times, four of which have come in the last two years. One year after his second TOUR victory in 2021 at The Northern Trust, Finau rattled off his best calendar year as a professional, winning back-to-back titles at the 2022 3M Open and the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic on his way to a 9th-place finish in the TOUR Championship and the FedExCup. Finau is off to a hot start early in this year’s PGA TOUR season, picking up his fifth TOUR win at the 2022 Cadence Bank Houston Open and a 7th-place finish at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. Finau was a member of the 2018 and 2020 (played in 2021 due to COVID) US Ryder Cup teams as well as the victorious 2019 and 2022 Presidents Cup teams. Finau is currently ranked No. 12 in the Official World Golf Ranking and will make his 8th start at TPC Scottsdale, with his best outing a runner-up finish in 2020 when he lost in a playoff to Webb Simpson.
Homa is a former NCAA Individual National Champion and five-time winner on the PGA TOUR. He made his PGA TOUR debut in 2013 and waited nearly six years to earn his first win at the 2019 Wells Fargo Championship. Since his first victory, Homa has earned four more PGA TOUR titles with his best season coming in 2022 when he won two titles, collecting victories at the season-opening Fortinet Championship and the Wells Fargo Championship to finish in a tie for fifth in the FedExCup standings. Last year also marked his first multiple-win season on TOUR and first time reaching the TOUR Championship. Homa seems to be picking up in 2023 where he left off with a title defense at the Fortinet Championship in September and a T4 finish at the QBE Shootout in December. Homa is currently ranked No. 17 in the Official World Golf Ranking and will make his fifth start at the WM Phoenix Open in 2023, with his best finish a solo sixth in 2020.
Englishman and six-time European Tour winner Tommy Fleetwood will be making his first WM Phoenix Open appearance in 2023. Since his professional debut in 2010, Fleetwood has accrued six European Tour victories, a 2017 Race to Dubai title and European Tour Player of the Year honors in the same year. He is currently ranked No. 23 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
A field of 132 players will vie for the increased purse of $20 million, the $3,600,000 first-place check and 500 FedExCup points. PGA TOUR members have until 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 3, to commit to play in the WM Phoenix Open. Eligible players are assigned one of 34 PGA TOUR priority ranking categories based on their past performance on TOUR. The field will continue to change as players with higher priority rankings commit to play in the WM Phoenix Open. This year, the WM Phoenix Open is guaranteed to have the top 20 players at its event thanks to the commitment from PGA TOUR players in the Player Impact Program. The 2023 WM Phoenix Open will be one of PGA TOUR’s ‘Designated’ events.
Click here for more information about the 2023 Waste Management Phoenix Open
