2021 Shriners Children’s Open: Top 10 power rankings at TPC Summerlin

Viktor Hovland has hit almost every PGA Tour stop as he now embarks on his third full season. The Shriners Children’s Open is a new one.

He’s obviously shown us as a young pro that a new venue is no fear for the Norwegian. He’s inside the top-15 of the world not so much for racking up wins, but for playing consistently well everywhere he goes.

The last place he went was Whistling Straits for the Ryder Cup. His European team was throttled, but it was hard to really point the finger at the rookie.

Hovland’s 0-3-2 record is not great, but he was tasked with hoisting up Bernd Wiesberger and Paul Casey, who were not up to snuff that week. With Tommy Fleetwood, the two managed a half point against Justin Thomas and Cantlay in fourballs.

On his fifth match of the week against Collin Morikawa on his fourth, Hovland managed a tie in Saturday singles.

Hovland will be glad that a good chunk of the American Ryder Cup team isn’t in Las Vegas this week.

The former Oklahoma State Cowboy last won in June at the European Tour’s BMW International Open. His last individual start prior to the Shriners was also on the European Tour where he posted T-49th at the BMW PGA Championship.

Hovland had a nice run through the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, finishing T-17th at yet another BMW-sponsored event, the BMW Championship and fifth in the Tour Championship.

He finished eighth on the PGA Tour last season in strokes gained tee to green (1.263) and was in the top 15 of SG off the tee and SG approach.

Hovland’s short game continues to be his weakness, but we’ve seen a small uptick in his scrambling numbers. That and green reading are areas that gaining more yeats on tour should help.

Besides, Hovland projects to hit tons of greens at TPC Summerlin and shouldn’t have a ton of trouble getting up and down when needed.