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Power Rankings: Waste Management Phoenix Open

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The PGA Tour remains heads to Arizona this week for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. A field of 132 players will tackle the Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale, including the raucous par-3 16th hole.

Be sure to join the all-new Golf Channel Fantasy Challenge - including a new One & Done game offering - to compete for prizes and form your own leagues, and log on to www.playfantasygolf.com to submit your picks for this week’s event.

Hideki Matsuyama won this event last year in a playoff over Webb Simpson. Here are 10 names to watch in Scottsdale:

1. Hideki Matsuyama: The Japanese phenom has been the undisputed top name at this event recently, having won each of the last two years in four-hole playoffs. He was also a runner-up in 2015, finished T-4 in 2014 and enters off a T-12 finish at Torrey Pines that included a final-round 69. Expect more of the same.

2. Jordan Spieth: Spieth is playing for the first tim since the Sony Open, and he’s teeing it up in an event where he cracked the top 10 in both 2015 (T-7) and last year (T-9). You have to go all the way back to the PGA Championship to find an instance where Spieth finished outside the top 20, a span of eight worldwide starts.

3. Jon Rahm: Rahm’s weekend melt in San Diego qualified as surprising, but it shouldn’t deter fantasy players from slotting the Spaniard. Rahm will have plenty of support this week having gone to school at nearby Arizona State, and his record here includes a T-5 finish as an amateur in 2015 along with last year’s T-16 result.

4. Rickie Fowler: Fowler missed the cut for the third straight year at Torrey Pines, but each of the last two years he has followed that result by contending at TPC Scottsdale. The veteran was T-4 last year, and back in 2016 he let a late lead slip away before losing to Matsuyama in a playoff. He was T-4 in Maui earlier this month.

5. Justin Thomas: Thomas was in the mix through 36 holes at this event in his 2015 debut before falling back into a T-17 finish, but he has missed the cut each of the last two years. Expect that mini-slump to end this week, as Thomas tees it up for the first time since a T-14 finish at the Sony Open as one of the headliners of a stacked field.

6. Webb Simpson: Last year’s runner-up has been a regular contender at this event, with top-15 finishes in each of his four prior trips to the desert. Simpson has long been viewed as a balky putter, but he ranks 18th on Tour this season in strokes gained putting and 13th in total strokes gained. Simpson finished T-4 at the Sony earlier this month.

7. Matt Kuchar: Kuchar finished T-9 at this event last year, his second top-10 finish in five appearances since 2009. Kuchar hasn’t finished outside the top 45 at TPC Scottsdale in that span, and to find his last missed cut you have to go back nearly a year to the Shell Houston Open.

8. Daniel Berger: Berger has had some early success at this event, with top-10 finishes in two of his first three appearances. That includes a T-7 finish last year, and his recent form includes top-15 finishes on both legs of the Hawaiian swing earlier this month. In fact, he’s on a run of four straight top-25 finishes dating back to the fall.

9. Zach Johnson: The two-time major champ has begun to turn things around of late, with top-10 finishes in each of his two tournament starts this year. His WMPO record includes four top-15 finishes in his last five trips, highlighted by a T-10 finish in 2015. Johnson is 15th on Tour this season in total strokes gained.

10. Brendan Steele: Steele is already a winner this season on Tour, and he’s heading back to a venue where he has had considerable success. Steele finished T-6 or better three straight years here from 2012-14, and he has four top-20 finishes over the last five years. In addition to his Napa victory in October, he has notched top-30 results in each of his first three starts in 2018.