Niall Lyons had five selection for the Shriners Childrens Open this week.
Shriners Childrens Open
Shriners Childrens Open will be hosted at TPC Summerlin, Las Vegas. One of the easiest tracks of the year, TPC Summerlin plays at altitude so doesn't play the full length on the scorecard.
Tom Kim and Sungjae Im were two of the more fancied winners of this event the past three years, but prior to that Martin Laird landed the spoils at a huge 250/1.
The birdie fest does offer up the chance of a surprise result and more attention maybe than usual is drawn to further down the betting board.
Birdie or better percentage is a statistic worth looking at and form across easy scoring courses in desert conditions is another aspect worthy of analysis before narrowing down the field of potential winners.
In terms of composite courses you'd look to The Summit that has held the CJ Cup as well as the Desert courses in California that make up the AMEX and Waste Management events.
Driving accuracy is favoured over distance this week and the winners here down the years have generally ranked high in this statistic as you need to take your chances from the short grass.
In terms of the stats table below it's one of the more colourful weeks with plenty of red in there. This means that the event is slightly more unpredictable and winners/contenders down the years haven't been too easily profiled.
Shriners Childrens Open Tips
- 4pts WIN T.Kim 14/1 Unibet, BetUK, Livescore
- 1pt each-way R.Fowler 60/1 (1/5 8) Skybet, Paddypower, WilliamHill
- 1pt each-way D.Berger 80/1 (1/5 8) Paddypower, WilliamHill
- 0.75pt each-way J.Dahmen 150/1 (1/5 8) Skybet, Paddypower, WilliamHill
- 0.5pt each-way N.Xiong 400/1 (1/5 8) Skybet
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Tom Kim at 14/1 (Win)
Last year we backed Tom Kim here in his quest for a back to back victory and it was a successful ploy overcoming Adam Hadwin by a single shot.
That makes his last eight rounds here read 68-68-62-66-65-67-62-66. That's an incredible run of figures and I'm surprised, even given a layoff, that he is 14/1 this week.
Kim hasn't played tournament golf since the Fedex St Jude Championship in August but looked in lively enough form when taking 1.5pts for the Internationals in the Presidents Cup last month.
He gave it both barrels there as he usually does and that goes to show you what type of mind frame he has. He feels he belongs among the best in the game, but time will tell.
For now he re-joins the ranks in the Fall events and there are a handful behind him in the market that already secured their place in the top 50 at the end of the Playoffs.
Kim has something to play for if he can manage to stay within the 50-60 range in the fedex rankings. Kim won this last year to become the youngest player since Tiger Woods to win three PGA Tour events, and I'm pretty sure he'd break another record should he become a three time champion of the same event at 22 years of age.
His tee to green prowess around a track such as this that doesn't require a good deal of length off the tee means he is in prime position to make another bold bit at this event.
With Aberg in the field last year he was a 12/1 poke, and with nobody quite of his ability in the field this week I believe 14/1 to be very fair considering his last eight rounds at this course.
Rickie Fowler at 60/1 (Eight Places)
Keith Mitchell has more than doubled in price after a missed cut last week and that could be an overreaction.
It wouldn't surprise me to see him bounce back but some poor form around here is enough to make me look elsewhere.
Instead I'll opt for Rickie Fowler who showed plenty of promise last time out at the Sanderson Farms and can hopefully follow that up with another solid effort.
Venues where you don't need a lot of distance from the tee will help Fowler and we have won here at altitude in Vegas.
He is one of the more accurate drivers in the field and should his irons improve a little from what they were in Jackson then he could be a runner.
He has a fine record on Desert courses and should he return to anywhere near his best then he'll be a serious threat to anyone here.
1pt each-way R.Fowler 60/1 (1/5 8) Skybet, Paddypower, WilliamHill
Daniel Berger at 80/1 (Eight Places)
Daniel Berger was a top price of 45/1 last week with 8 places on offer and I'm amazed he has almost doubled to 80/1.
7th at the Sanderson whilst he was talking a very good game made me keen to bet him last week but now I wished I'd have waited.
35th in Utah was a middling result but ranking 24th in sg tee to green was a solid effort playing reasonably well through the bag.
The last time Berger teed it up here he finished inside the top 20 and he is a sleeping giant in the game somewhat should he recapture the form of old.
Someonein a similar position to him is Webb Simpson who interested me this week but despite some great form at this track, I can't have him shorter than Berger.
7th two starts ago seems like much better form to me and there is room for a lot of improvement.
Joel Dahmen at 150/1 (Eight Places)
I'm fully aware this usually throwing hard earned cash down the drain but the 150/1 abut Joel Dahmen in this field looks worth having a little bit of.
There have been some decent signs from Dahmen this season but ultimately the results haven't materialised and that has largely been down to the from with the putter.
It has been a stinking year with that club but it must be said his ball striking is still tremendous. It's amazing better results don't follow given how relatively consistent his long game is but here we are and we're hoping for a good putting week.
He has made his last six cuts at Summerlin with two top ten finishes to his name. Only once in those six made cuts has he managed to putt better than field average and that was when he finished 9th in 2019.
There were small positives last week with the putter improving as the week went on and eventually ranking 14th on the greens in round 4.
If he can continue that putting from round 4 last week then he has a chance to get into the mix at a nice price.
0.75pt each-way J.Dahmen 150/1 (1/5 8) Skybet, Paddypower, WilliamHill
Norman Xiong at 400/1 (Eight Places)
Finally I'll have a small bet on Norman Xiong who made his first cut since March last week at the Black Desert track and could follow it up this week in Vegas.
More was expected of Xiong this season but he has battled injury and was out from May to September with a back injury.
Since then there have been plenty of positives despite two missed cuts. Those MCs at the Procore and Sanderson Farms were both on the number then there was more improvement last week.
He ranked 12th in strokes gained approach last week and he should take great confidence from that going forward.
Twice a winner on the KFT he has shown plenty to suggest he's capable of a victory in this sphere and with a weakened field and his game on the up the 400/1 must be snapped up.
