Shriners Children's Open PGA DFS Stats Preview: Course Fits, GPP Picks, and Values

The PGA TOUR season brings us to Las Vegas this week to play the Shriners Children’s Open. TPC Summerlin is a par 71 measuring 7,255 yards and features Bentgrass greens. The event has been a staple on tour since 1992.

The field is relatively weak this week, but we will get a chance to see a few Presidents Cup stars including defending champion Sungjae Im and fan-favorite Tom Kim. Some other notable players in the field include Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa, Cameron Davis, Rickie Fowler, Cameron Champ, Jason Day, and Gary Woodland.

For contests on DraftKings, I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.

And if you missed it, we added two new metrics in our models — Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on those metrics here.

The cliff notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leverage plays in tournaments, while Perfect% is excellent for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.

For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

This analysis may reference Strokes Gained, a set of proprietary metrics generated by the PGA TOUR using millions of data points to calculate how many shots, on average, it takes a player to get the ball in the hole from every distance and situation.

Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.

Strokes Gained: Approach

Strokes Gained: Approach ranks out as the most predictive statistic for TPC Summerlin. Martin Laird (2020 winner) gained 6.5 strokes on approach which was fourth in the field and last year’s winner Sungjae Im gained 5.4 strokes on approach which ranked 7th in the field.

High-end target: Russell Henley— $7,700 (1st Strokes Gained: Approach)
Mid-range target: Brendan Steele— $7,800 (3rd Strokes Gained: Approach)
Value target: Stephen Jaeger— $7,200 (5th Strokes Gained: Approach)

Fairways Gained

TPC Summerlin ranks in the top 10 of courses in which driving accuracy is most important and predictive of the winner. Looking at past champions and course horses, guys who find the fairway are always a staple on the leaderboard.

Accuracy should prove to be more important than distance this week, as the course will punish players who miss the fairway. In a tournament in which making a lot of birdies will be crucial, players will need to find the fairway. This is very much a positional golf course.

High-end target: Tom Kim $9,700 (2nd Fairways Gained)
Mid-range target: Troy Merritt— $7,300 (4th Fairways Gained)
Value target: Andrew Putnam— $7,200 (6th Fairways Gained)

Par 4: 400-450

Par 4s between 400 and 450 yards are the most common hole length at TPC Summerlin. Six of the eleven par 4s on the course fall in this yardage range.

High-end target: Tom Kim— $9,700 (13th Par 4: 400-450)
Mid-range target: Thomas Detry— $7,900 (1st Par 4: 400-450)
Value target: Andrew Putnam— $7,200 (2nd Par 4: 400-450)

SG: Putting (Bentgrass Greens + Fast)

Looking at past leaderboards at the Shriners, it’s obvious that Bentgrass specialists seem to perform very well at TPC Summerlin. Kevin Na gained an absurd 14.2 strokes putting en route to his victory in 2019.

High-end target: Patrick Cantlay— $11,100 (2nd SG: Putting (Bentgrass Greens + Fast)
Mid-range target: Christian Bezuidenhout— $8,200 (1st SG: Putting (Bentgrass Greens + Fast)
Value target: Justin Lower— $7,100 (5th SG: Putting (Bentgrass Greens + Fast)

Birdie or Better: Gained

While TPC Summerlin does present a few challenges, scoring is generally relatively easy at the course; it ranks in the bottom 25% of courses on tour in terms of difficulty. Therefore, golfers will need to present themselves with a lot of birdie opportunities. Five of the past six winners have finished with a score of -20 or better.

High-end target: Tom Kim— $9,700 (1st Birdie or Better: Gained)
Mid-range target: Cameron Davis— $9,200 (2nd Birdie or Better: Gained)
Value target: Ben Griffin— $6,200— (5th Birdie or Better: Gained)

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For contests on DraftKings, I will be breaking down the key stats (past 24 rounds) and selecting golfers from different price tiers to provide flexibility for a DFS lineup.

And if you missed it, we added two new metrics in our models — Perfect% and SimLeverage. You can find an explainer on those metrics here.

The cliff notes version is that you can use SimLeverage to quickly find leverage plays in tournaments, while Perfect% is excellent for finding the best price-considered plays for cash games.

For large-field tournaments, you can utilize our Lineup Optimizer to effortlessly create up to 150 lineups, or use our Lineup Builder if you like to hand-build your lineups.

Strokes Gained is now available in the FantasyLabs PGA Models.