Golf Matchups from the Phoenix Open: Can Calcavecchia find the magic?

The TPC Scottsdale, which is where the Waste Management Phoenix Open (previously nown as the FBR Open) is one of the livelier places the PGA stops at, and a lot of that, I am told, comes from the Arizona State students that attend the tourney from the nearby Tempe campus.

It's different than in most places because it is perhaps the loudest stop on the tour. It is also one of the most widely attended, with a regular attendance of over half a million. For lack of a better word, it's "rowdy," which is something I would not have expected out of swanky Scottsdale.

Let's put it this way: on the 16th hole, which is considered to pretty easy, if a player can't hit the green on his tee shot, he gets booed by the throng that sits in the stadium seats. If that's YOUR kind of golf tournament, please read on.

Let's look at a few of the matchups with odds, including one with a three-time champion who was as dominant on this course as anyone has ever been.

CAMERON PERCY -135

MARK CALCAVECCHIA +105

Calcavecchia won this event for the third time in 2001, and in doing so he set the record for the lowest score ever in a PGA Tour event, with a 28-under par 256. Along the way he made 32 birdies in 72 holes. The former British Open champion last won a tournament in 2007. He had four Top 25 finishes in 2009, but the FBR Open (Phoenix) was not one of them; in fact, he missed the cut in last year's event. Percy spent the last two years on the Nationwide Tour and cashed out at just under $18,000 with a 46th-place finish at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He just withdrew from the Mayakoba Golf Classic with food poisoning. When not ill, the Aussie's hit 96% of his greens in regulation from 100 yards or closer.

EDGE: CALCAVECCHIA (+105)

JUSTIN ROSE -110

BEN CRANE -120

Crane might be able to make a nice showing for himself, considering that he was tied for fourth in this event two years ago. He has also played well in a couple of events this year, winning the Farmers Insurance Open and reaching the Sweet 16 at the Accenture Match Play event last week. He leads the Tour in greens in regulation (81.7%). Is he long enough? His driving distance ranks him in the bottom quarter of PGA players. Justin Rose's best finish thus far this season is a tie for 12th at the Sony Open. He hasn't played here since 2007, when he was tied for 39th. Rose, if you remember, was the young man who emerged as a 17-year-old amateur in the 1998 British Open, finishing in a tie for fourth place. The he turned pro and missed 21 straight cuts. He's won the European Order of Merit, and has top ten finishes in all four major championships, but he has not broken through yet with a win on the PGA Tour in America.

EDGE: CRANE (-120)

RYAN PALMER -120

AARON BADDELEY -110

Baddeley is one of a number of Australians who have done well at the Phoenix Open, and he is the most recent to win it, shooting a 21-under par 263 to capture the 2007 title that was sandwiched around J.B. Holmes' crowns. Baddeley has done nothing of any particular note this year yet, and truth be told, aside from his win, his results in Phoenix haven't been all that stunning. In fact, both the year before and after he won this tournament, he missed the cut, and has missed it on three other occasions as well. So don't count on anything automatic out of him here. The guy who has a lot more momentum going for him right now is Ryan Palmer, who won the Sony Open in Hawaii to start the year. In 2006 he was tied for the runner-up spot under Holmes in Phoenix, as he shot 14 under par. He's the type of player who could have something of a natural advantage here because of how far he can hit the ball - he averages over 287 yards a drive.

EDGE: PALMER (-120)