Fantasy Golf Picks, Odds, and Predictions – Shriners Hospitals For Children Open
Shriners Hospitals For Children Open Champions Fantasy Preview
This week the main draw of the PGA TOUR returns to US soil after a brief sojourn to the Far East for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
Hosted by the spectacular TPC Summerlin club in Las Vegas, Nevada, this is a typically low-key Fall Season event that generally fails to attract the Tour’s top names, most of whom will be at home on the sofa recovering after a busy few weeks in Malaysia and China.
This tournament has actually been around since 1983 as a pro-am event staged across multiple courses, but for the past decade or so the event been a standard 72-hole affair and since 2008 hosted by the Summerlin club.
Many will remember that it was here that Smylie Kaufman first burst onto the scene with his breakout victory; a final round of 61 saw him romping through the pack to win by one shot over Jason Bohn. Kaufman even had the luxury of firing +1 on Friday and still coming out on top, such was his excellence on the Sunday.
So, can the Alabama boy successfully defend his title? Let’s dive deeper to find out and see if he’s worth a look for your DFS rosters this week.
Last Week’s Fantasy Results
Last week we ran with Rory as our top-tier horse pick and he finished the week solidly with a T4 performance. Along with Rory, we put an emphasis on Francesco Molinari who finished T6 with a healthy 102.5 fantasy points.
Of our seven Top Picks, four finished in the Top 30 (3 in the top 19) while big names that were heavily weighted in DraftKings like Dustin Johnson (T35), Patrick Reed (T60), and Bubba Watson (T54) all finished far below.
Matsuyama and Stenson proved to be the more ideal picks last week but we’re content with our McIlroy/Molinari combination. As noted in last week’s preview Knox proved to be a good alternative pick over Kaymer who underperformed our predictions and rational for running with the young German last week. In all, here’s how we fared in Shanghai:
Main Picks
Rory McIlroy: T4 ($372,000)
Martin Kaymer: T40 ($62,000)
Francesco Molinari: T6 ($235,333)
Rafael Cabrera Bello: T19 ($93,000)
Alexander Levy: T58 ($47,750)
Sleepers
Branden Grace: T30 ($72,000)
Scott Hend: T54 ($49,250)
The 2016 Shriners Hospitals For Children Open Field
It’s no surprise to see the top-end of the field packed with players boasting Nevada connections, particularly as this course has generally been kind to those who know how to pick their way around it. As such, the presence of Kevin Na, Ryan Moore, Scott Piercy and Charley Hoffman is no coincidence.
Ryder Cup stars Brooks Koepka and Jimmy Walker will be looking to put their tough time in China behind them, while eye-catching performances this past weekend from Francesco Molinari and Chris Kirk has seen them creep into the reckoning too.
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Lower down the pecking order we have the likes of Cody Gribble, who is celebrating his maiden PGA TOUR title after capturing the Sanderson Farms Championship last the weekend, as well as former Shriners Hospitals for Children champions in Ben Martin, Webb Simpson and Martin Laird.
This Week’s Course Preview
TPC Summerlin has been described as the easiest of the Par 71 courses that the PGA TOUR visits, and with its high altitude—meaning that its 7,255 yardage doesn’t really play that long—you can see why winning scores here have ranged from Kaufman’s -16 last year to -24 in 2013.
Designed by Bobby Weed and Fuzzy Zoeller back in 1992, Summerlin offers few obstacles of note. Fairways are wider than average and the Bentgrass greens offer plenty of angles in. These will be running at around 11 on the stimpmeter, so there will be plenty of birdies or better for those who enjoy a good weekend with the short stick.
Kaufman’s winning total of -16 in 2015 has been the ‘poorest’ score in the past five renewals, so the addition of a few extra bunkers in recent times may just have had the desired effect of adding some more challenge to the track, but even so this is something of a birdie-fest that will be enjoyed by those in top form as well as those in the know.
Check out the view from the @PKWYTavern Patio on 17! $99 per day which includes an open bar. Visit our website to reserve your tickets! #SHCO16 #PGATOUR #Golf #PKWYPatio
A photo posted by Shriners Open (@shrinersopen) on
Oct 29, 2016 at 9:40am PDT
Weather Forecast for Las Vegas, Nevada
The weather is set to be fair this week in Nevada, with 0% chance of rain and around 30% humidity. A steady breeze on Thursday, with winds at approximately 10mph, will give way to an almost still weekend.
As is often the case, the wind looks set to pick up during the afternoon on Thursday, so perhaps those early tee times will have a slight advantage.
Last Year’s Results from the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open
Smylie Kaufman cut his teeth on the PGA TOUR at this event in 2015, just a week after recording his first PGA TOUR top-10 at the Frys.com Open. What a few weeks that was for the South Coast native! Kaufman’s early season success came after a sparkling year on the Web.com circuit, so once again the Tour’s new boys will be of interest to DFS managers.
Kaufman had chugged along quite nicely at Summerlin last year without doing anything spectacular….until a final round of 61 ensured he cut a swathe through the field to win by a solitary stroke.
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His performance was underlined by quality off the tee (ranking fifth for Driving Distance and seventh in Driving Accuracy), an effective short game (13th for GIR), a hot hand on the dancefloor (eighth in Strokes Gained: Putting) and an ability to shoot low (T1 for Birdies Made). With just a trio of Par 5s, making those holes count also worked in Kaufman’s favor.
Nevada native Kevin Na again went close here in second, with four other players (Alex Cejka, Patton Kizzire, Jason Bohn, and Cameron Tringale) also duking it out for the silver medal.
This Week’s Broadcast Schedule
Television Broadcasts
Thursday-Saturday, 4:30-7:30 p.m. EDT (Golf Channel)
Sunday, 3:30-6:30 p.m.(GC).
Mobile Broadcasts:
None
RADIO: (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com)
Thursday-Friday, 2-8 p.m.
Saturday, 3-8 p.m
Sunday, 2-7 p.m.
Where to Play Fantasy Golf for the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open this Week
As always DraftKings is where the big action is and should be the first port of call for daily fantasy managers around the globe. This week they’ve set-up a rather varied slate of contests to get players of all budgets and preferences excited:
PGA $100K Fore: Here’s a solid multi-entry contest with a total prize pool of $100k, and with just shy of 30,000 competitors you won’t be swamped by high rollers. Probably the best $4 you’ll spend this week.
Dogleg $100K: Of course, if you want a bit of extra bang for your buck then try the Dogleg on for size; a $33 entry that offers a whopping top prize of $10k and a chance to double your money just for finishing in the top 15% of this 3500 player battle.
This Week’s Fantasy Notes for the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open
Last year’s top ten finishers at the Shriners were an eclectic bunch, although a consistent thread informed the good performances of many of those who were in the hunt for top honors.
Smylie Kaufman was seeing the course for the first time, but there were plenty of other contenders who have done great things in Vegas. Jason Bohn, for example, had gone seven-for-seven here, with three consecutive top-20s prior to his runner-up spot in 2015. Chad Campbell now has three top-10s at Summerlin to his name, Na, as we know, has some local knowledge to call upon, Cejka had finished 18th here in 2014, while Patton Kizzire has a nice run of good showings in West Coast events to call upon.
A compelling trend for course form, or at least regional form, is emerging.
The parallels between decent finishes at the Shriners and a good showing in the Frys.Com/Safeway Open is revealing enough too. Both Bohn and Na connected for top-10s last year, while the likes of Piercy, Steele, Kizzire and Laird have all recorded top-20s in both.
As for the on-field action, we’re looking for a ‘total driver’ who can blend accuracy with distance (Kaufman was ranked in the top ten for both key stats last year), and a decent short game merchant too – 12 of the last 13 winners have ranked top 20 for Greens in Regulation.
Kaufman’s putter was on fire here last year, and as we expect in all ‘birdie-fest’ tournaments getting the job done on the greens is essential. Clearly, going low on the Par 4s is just as important as doing so on the longer holes—Kaufman played the fours at -6 and the fives at -7 in his championship run.
One final thought that may come in handy for DFS managers – certainly for bettors, anyway – is that eight of the ten first round leaders started on peg 10, with five of those given a morning tee time.
Our Top 5 (and Top 2 Sleeper) Fantasy Picks and Odds to Win the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open
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Fantasy Golf Predictions Last Season (2015-2016)
Tourneys Played '15 -'16
0
21 Picks
Season Earnings
$0
$636,460 average
Total Top 3s
0 out of 14 picks
Total Top 10s
6 out of 21 picks
Total Top 25s
9 out of 21 picks
Total Winners Picked
0 out of 3 events
Total Runners-Up Picked
0 out of 3 events
Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)
18 out of 21 picks
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