The First Tee at The Shriners Hospitals for Children Open
This week the Tour moves to the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open, hosted by TPC Summerlin. Last year's champion, Smylie Kaufman, came back from a seven stroke deficit on Sunday, firing a tournament record (-10) to capture his first career victory.
TPC Summerlin is a par 72, and will be stretched out to play at 7,243 yards this week. It is a true desert design, with architect Bobby Weed building the course out of a large parcel of desert while keeping many of the existing plants and wildlife habitats to enhance the aesthetic feel of the course. Veteran PGA professional Fuzzy Zoeller served as a consultant on the course design. Weed is a disciple of the master architect Pete Dye, and his layouts follow similar design principles, specifically the inclusion of risk/reward holes with many of them using forced carries to tempt players into making mistakes.
TPC Summerlin features bentgrass greens, and the speed of the greens usually roll in the 11.5-12 range on the stimpmeter. The average size of the greens are 7,570 sq ft, which are much larger than the average size that PGA pros encounter each week.
TPC Summerlin is located in Las Vegas, Nevada and plays similar to how you would expect a high end desert course to play. The fairways play generally firm and fast, allowing average hitters to have manageable approach shots into long par 4's, as well as having eagle chances on the par 5's.
The layout allows the gamut of skillsets to succeed, further muddying the waters in terms of lineup construction strategy. The field lacks elite players, which allows you to build GPP lineups that are balanced while still giving you the upside you need to win larger tournaments. The more I look at the salaries this week, the more I think that balanced lineups with exposure to a wide subset of players is the way to go.
The key metrics I am looking at this week are Driving Accuary, SG: Putting, Proximity to Hole and SG: Approach.
GPP Plays
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