More President Cup players join the action this week at The Shriners Hospitals for Childrens Open , which gets underway Thursday morning from TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas . 2007 Masters champion Zach Johnson will join International stars, Brendon de Jonge and Graham DeLaet as part of the 132 player field who are all ready to tee it up for the last tournament before the tour moves off-shore next week.
Ryan Moore defends his title in Las Vegas where, this year, there is a $ 6 Million Dollar purse, and 500 FedEx Cup points up for grabs. Along with the points, the winner will pick up $ 810,000 Dollars, and an invitation to Augusta in April.
Frys.com winner, Jimmy Walker is in the field this week, and will be looking to add to his 500 point lead in FedEc Cup points. He rode a hot putter to his first win at Cordevalle last Sunday, but will need to find a few more fairways at TPC Summerlin if he intends to get that second win this week.
The prohibitive favorite coming into the week is obviously Zach Johnson. After going 3-1-0 in his Presidents Cup showing, and finishing in the top ten, seven times out of his last eight starts including his victory at Conway Farms, Zach Johnson is one of the hottest players on the PGA Tour right now.
Nick Watney returns to work this week as well. Nick has always played well in Las Vegas, and ended the 2013 season with a T 14 at the Tour Championship. Look for him to come to the Shriners with guns blazing this week.
Other Presidents Cup stars in the field this week, are Webb Simpson , Angel Cabrera and Japanese rookie, Hideki Matsuyama . What has traditionally been a “Ho-Hum ” field is now well worth spending some time to watch.
The addition of FedEx Cup points, a Masters Invitation, and more prize money to these Fall Series tournaments has served to strengthen the fields. In the past, the Masters did not offer Masters invitations to winner of these events because there were no FedEx Cup points involved.
The host course for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, the Tournament Players Club Summerlin offers golfers a 7,223-yard stadium course layout that has gained a reputation as one of the country’s most splendid golfing experiences.
The TPC, which opened for play in November 1991, was built in the heart of Summerlin, a 22,000-acre master-planned community on the western-most edge of Las Vegas. The community is currently home to more than 100,000 residents.
As a stadium course, the TPC Summerlin was built to accommodate golfing fans with unrestricted views of tee shots, fairway approaches and putting through strategically placed spectator mounds and natural amphitheaters. Still, the integrity of the course remains.
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