This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
Shriners Children's Open
Course: TPC Summerlin (7,255 yards, par 71)
Purse: $8,000,000
Winner: $1,440,000 and 500 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
The third official event of the PGA Tour season takes us back to Las Vegas where the Shriners Children's Open will be hosted for the 15th straight season at TPC Summerlin. It is routinely one of the biggest birdie barrages of the season. In each of the last three tournaments, the 36-hole cut has been at least five-under-par and the winner has topped out at at least 23-under-par. With very calm winds expected, it should be very much like playing golf in a dome for the field of 144 players in Vegas.
There's a lot of players to keep an eye on this week with 12 players inside the top-50 in the OWGR and 10 players that participated in the Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow. Leading that contingent is 2017 Shriners Open winner Patrick Cantlay and the defending champion of the event in Sungjae Im. Fortinet Championship winner Max Homa will also be in the field along with the electric 20-year-old Tom Kim making his season debut. Martin Laird, who won this event in 2009 and 2020, will be looking to join Jim Furyk as the only three-time winner of the Shriners Open.
Recent Champions
2021- Sungjae Im (-24)
2020 - Martin Laird (-23)
2019 - Kevin Na (-23)
2018 - Bryson DeChambeau (-21)
2017 - Patrick Cantlay (-9)
2016 - Rod Pampling (-20)
2015 - Smylie Kaufman (-16)
2014 - Ben Martin (-20)
2013 - Webb Simpson (-24)
2012 - Ryan Moore (-24)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach
- Birdie Average
- GIR Percentage
- SG: Putting
Champion's Profile
There has not been one clear formula for success at TPC Summerlin outside of making a bunch of birdies and eagles. There are some desert features that could give players problems if they drive it way off line. Small misses won't be punished because the rough is pretty much non-existent. We've see both short and accurate players like Webb Simpson and Ryan Moore, as well as bombers like Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Cantlay have success here, so there's really no advantage either way. In a shootout like what we are expecting this week, the name of the game is generally hitting greens in regulation and sinking putts. Last year Sungjae Im led the field in SG: Tee-to-Green and GIR's en route to his four strokes victory. Matthew Wolff, Marc Leishman and Adam Schenk, who all finished with a top-three, were also the three highest players in terms of strokes gained with the putter. With such benign conditions expected, I think we can throw out a lot of the short game stats because there's not going to be a lot of opportunities to gain or lose strokes there.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Patrick Cantlay ($12,000)
Cantlay broke through for his first PGA Tour victory here back in 2017 and then posted back-to-back runner-up finishes the next two years. His one other start at TPC Summerlin was "only" a T8. This is not one to overthink. Cantlay ranked at least 38th in every measured strokes gained category and was fifth in birdie average last season. He's got two finishes outside the top-15 over his last 12 starts with two victories and two runner-up's in that stretch
Sungjae Im ($11,800)
Im picked up his second PGA Tour title last year at TPC Summerlin with a magical nine-under 62 in the final round to win by four strokes. In two prior starts here Im scored a pair of top-15 finishes and now owns an eye-popping scoring average of 66.5. Similar to Cantlay, Im is a machine all the way through the bag ranking top-45 in all measured strokes gained categories last season. He was top-10 in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Tee-to-Green and GIR percentage. Im has three runner-up finishes in his last five starts.
Aaron Wise ($11,500)
Wise had his best season on Tour last year in which he totaled 14 top-27 finishes. His elite ball-striking made him a consistent threat as he ranked top-25 in SG: Approach, SG: Tee-to-Green, GIR percentage and birdie average. Wise's switch to the long putter also saw him back substantial gains on the greens. The Oregon product loves TPC Summerlin with three top-15 finishes, including a T8 last year.
Cam Davis ($11,100)
I'm not sure any player gained more confidence in himself at the Presidents Cup than Davis. The talent has been pretty apparent in his first few years on Tour, but it just seemed like he was missing something. After closing last season with top-16 finishes in five of his last six starts and that strong Presidents Cup showing, I expect Davis to be a factor at a course that should suit his game quite well. The Aussie has made the cut in all three starts at TPC Summerlin with a pair of top-30s.
Longer Shots with Value
Matthew NeSmith ($9,300)
NeSmith's best course on the PGA Tour very well might be TPC Summerlin where he has gone T18-T8-T14. Some of that success probably has to do with how strong of an iron player he is. NeSmith is coming off a top-10 finish at the Sanderson Farms Championship where he made 23 total birdies and ranked third in SG: Approach.
Mark Hubbard ($9,200)
Hubbard has had a great start to the season with a T21 in Napa and a T5 last week in Jackson, where he held the 54-hole lead but was unable to convert it into his first PGA Tour win. Hubbard ranked second in SG: Approach in Jackson and made 21 total birdies. Those numbers bode well for success at TPC Summerlin where he has a lot of experience with six career starts.
Matt Wallace ($8,600)
Wallace has a lot of upside here if we get the right version of the Englishman. He has missed the cut in four of his last eight starts, but the four other starts were all top-26s including a runner-up at the Omega European Masters. Wallace ranked 12th in SG: Tee-to-Green in Napa en route to a T21 result. He scored a T14 finish a year ago at TPC Summerlin in which he ranked top-15 in both SG: Approach and GIR.
Mito Pereira ($8,200)
This is an easy buy-low opportunity. Pereira has no business being this far down the board in this field given his immense talent. The Chilean had a hot stretch in late spring that was highlighted by a tremendous showing at the PGA Championship, but since then he has not been good. Some time off combined with his participation at the Presidents Cup should have him rejuvenated, though. Pereira ranked ninth in SG: Approach, 16th in SG: Tee-to-Green and 14th in GIR percentage last season.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
There are some absolute studs this week up near the top of the leaderboard that will garner quite a bit of ownership. A number of them have pretty good records at TPC Summerlin as well. One who doesn't at all is Fortinet Championship winner Max Homa ($11,600), so I will likely be looking in other places this week. With all the strong options up top, that will force a lot of DFS players to try to find some cheaper options to stay under the salary cap. Unfortunately, things seem to dry up pretty fast below the $9,000 range. Thomas Detry ($9,900), Dean Burmester ($9,700), Nick Hardy ($9,300) and Kurt Kitayama ($9,100) are solid pivots from the $10,000 range if you want to save some salary.
