PGA DFS: Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Course Breakdown
PGA DFS: Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Course Breakdown
Hello fellow PGA DFS fans and welcome back to our next course breakdown as we continue into the 4th week of our young season! The West Coast swing takes us on a journey to Sin City this upcoming week and I’m here to give you an early a look at the track on which the “Shriners Open” will be competed on as well as provide a few Key stats to target. The goal here weekly is to set you in the right direction in terms of research and to get a short digestion of how the course will be playing. I always believe that as a Golf DFS player one has to have an imagination of what to expect from the week in terms of the layout before considering and sifting through the large field. Envisioning outcomes to match the theoretical statistical advantage believe it or not has helped many successful fantasy players in all fantasy sports. I hope these breakdowns are helping you do the same.
Before we move on, I would like to acknowledge the phenomenal performance that Cameron Champ displayed last weekend where he found himself hoisting the Safeway Open Wine Barrel. With his grandfather in a hospice dealing with Stage 4 Stomach Cancer all week only 1 hour away from Napa, Cameron put his heart on his sleeve and channeled all his emotion in an absolutely dominating fashion. Successfully overpowering the course, he was able to pound fairway after fairway, going against all of Silverados defenses. What was most impressive to watch was his much improved short game which was his “Achilles heel” in the past. Champ nailed a clutch putt on 18 which resulted in his victory over trialing Adam Hadwin.
As his father ran out to greet him on the green with his grandfather on the phone, a visibly emotional Cameron broke down in tears as he received a warm embrace in what culminated as one of the greatest moments of his career. It was a wonderful moment to witness as a fan and one that will be remembered. Champ has now earned himself a spot in this season Masters as a result of his victory. One other note to take in as Johnny Miller mentioned on air- 70% of Californian born golfers have now won the California events on tour- a crazy fact that reveals just how tricky Poa Annua greens can be and how important familiarity is.
Let’s move on to TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. Summerlin is a relatively young course, that sits a few minutes away from downtown Vegas, the gambling man’s paradise. Originally constructed in 1991, the 28-year-old course is a Bobby Weed design. No, that isn’t a typo, so before you start taking out your rolling paper, we must recognize Mr. Weed as a famed protegé of the master of course architecture and deception, the legendary Pete Dye. If you’re not familiar, Dye and Weed are known for producing courses with an intimidation factor, meaning you will be faced with several hazards, blind shots, and obscure tee shots that require ultimate precision among visually confusing lines. Before we start getting too worried, let’s focus on last year’s leader-board which had Bryson Dechambeau at -21 with Patrick Cantlay at -20 behind him. With such low scores, one has to wonder whether these guys are exceptionally good, or if the course can and will be “gettable”. We’ll go with the latter, and here’s why…