2022 Shriners Children’s Open: Picks and Predictions for Las Vegas
The PGA Tour returns to Las Vegas and TPC Summerlin this week for the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open.
After a week in Mississippi, the Tour returns west for the third event of the new season. TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada, will welcome this week’s 144-man field for the 2022 Shriners Children’s Open, as has been the case every year for well over a decade now.
The new season has provided plenty of excitement and drama thus far. After Max Homa’s enthralling win at the Fortinet Championship to start the new season, last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship had a lot to live up to.
Sepp Straka and Mackenzie Hughes ensured that there was no shortage of exhilarating action on Sunday at the Country Club Of Jackson. The Canadian would go on to claim his second win on Tour after a gripping playoff victory over last season’s Honda Classic winner.
Unfortunately for Straka, the playoff defeat was his second near-miss opportunity in the last couple of months after he also came up short in a playoff to Will Zalatoris at the FedEx St. Jude Championship back in August.
After two events that surrounded a Presidents Cup to begin the new season; this week’s Shriners Children’s Open has attracted by far the strongest field of the new season so far. A handful of players who starred at Quail Hollow will return to action this week in the Desert.
2017 Shriners Children’s Open winner Patrick Cantlay headlines the aforementioned group. Cantlay is joined by last year’s Shriners Children’s Open champion Sungjae Im, 2022 Fortinet Champion Max Homa, and 2022 Presidents Cup star Tom Kim.
Taylor Pendrith, Mito Pereira, Cam Davis, Si Woo Kim, and K.H. Lee are also in the field this week after their time in North Carolina.
TPC Summerlin is a Par 71, 7,255 yard, Bobby Weed design that is surrounded by beautiful local terrain.
Players will need to make plenty of birdies or better this week in order to contend at an event that has seen the average winning score creep north of 20-under-par in recent years. Those who are accurate off the tee, can get dialed in with their approach play, and make plenty of putts should find themselves near the top of the leaderboard this week.
Patrick Cantlay has a terrific track record at this event, so it is no surprise to see his name listed as the clear favorite by the oddsmakers. Here is how the rest of the top favorites shake out this week over on WynnBet.
2022 Shriners Children’s Open Favorites
(All odds courtesy of WynnBet)
- Patrick Cantlay (+750)
- Sungjae Im (+1400)
- Max Homa (+2000)
- Tom Kim (+2200)
- Aaron Wise (+2500)
- Taylor Montgomery (+2800)
- Cam Davis (+4000)
- Alex Noren (+4500)
- Emiliano Grillo (+4500)
- Tom Hoge (+4500)
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Pick to Top 20: Matthew NeSmith (+300)
Matthew NeSmith began his new PGA Tour season with a strong showing at the 2022 Sanderson Farms Championship last week.
The South Carolina native was dialed in with his irons gaining over six strokes for the week en route to a 9th place finish to kick off his season. Now the 29-year-old gets to return to an event that he has never finished outside of the top 20 at.
In three starts at the Shriners Children’s Open; NeSmith has posted finishes of 18th, 8th, and 14th. Last season on the PGA Tour Matthew ranked 30th in Strokes Gained: Approach, 31st in Greens in Regulation hit, and 35th in total birdies made.
Simply put, his skillset seems tailor-made for an event like this week’s Shriners Children’s Open, and his history at this place speaks to that. An outright win may be too much to ask of NeSmith this week, but at the very least I like him to keep his run of top 20 finishes in this event going.
Pick to Top 10: Tom Hoge (+400)
After multiple seasons on Tour, 2022 finally brought Tom Hoge his first win. It was a fantastic season for the TCU University alum; who recorded six top 10 finishes on the PGA Tour and finally broke through and claimed that elusive first win back at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February.
Hoge ended last season with a top 10 finish at East Lake before proceeding to pick up where he left off to kick off the new season. The North Carolina native began the new season with a solid showing at the Fortinet Championship a couple of weeks ago.
Tom looked sharp right out the gate in California gaining strokes off the tee, with his approaches, and on the greens en route to a 12th place finish. He has had mixed results at the Shriners Children’s Open over the years but has recorded finishes of 24th and 14th in his last two starts at TPC Summerlin.
The 33-year-old finished last season on Tour ranked 11th in Strokes Gained: Approach, and 8th in birdies made. I like Tom to continue his fast start this week and believe he can actually win at TPC Summerlin. With Patrick Cantlay and Sungjae Im lurking, however, I’ll play it safe and take him in the top 10 market instead.
Pick to Win: Si Woo Kim (+5000)
The fear here is that one of the big four in the market proves too much to overcome this week, and for that reason, I’ll take my chance with a proven winner at longer odds in this spot.
The 2017 Players Champion struggled a bit down the stretch towards the end of last season, though the 27-year-old looks to have turned a corner in recent weeks. Si Woo hasn’t made a start on the PGA Tour this season, but he did record a 5th place finish at the 38th Shinhan Donghae Open on the Asian Tour last month.
That came prior to a fantastic showing at the Presidents Cup for Si Woo Kim where he won three of four matches. This included a fantastic singles match when he took down Justin Thomas by a 1UP margin on the final day.
Next. 2022 Shriners Children's Open Power Rankings. dark
The three-time PGA Tour winner has recorded three top 25 finishes or better in his last five appearances at the Shriners Children’s Open.
Si Woo Kim has proven that he can beat anyone when his game is firing on all cylinders. At this number, I’ll take a chance with Kim in this spot with the hope that he carries over momentum from the Presidents Cup into this year’s Shriners Children’s Open.
*Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.