Player Pool: Shriners Children's Open
Next up in the fall swing
We head to Sin City for the next stop in our fall swing. The Shriners Children’s Open held at TPC Summerlin boasts a slightly smaller field than last week and bigger star power. A shorter course in general that doesn’t offer much resistance, save for around the green, we should see birdies galore. Driver and driving distance will definitely be in play and our players can separate themselves with wedges and distance. That’s not to say shorter hitters can’t succeed, as Tom Kim won here last year, but your most common approach shots, by far, are in the 100-150 yard range.
I’m trying a new change that I think will be beneficial, listing last weeks trend table rank and showing the value in the change. Anything within 10 spots either way of zero doesn’t really do much for me and there is of course the nuance that the field changes, so it’s not an apples to apples comparison, but can be used as a bit of a guide to see not only who is rating highly in the entire field, but also saw a rise (or decline) from the previous week (if they played) and may give us an opportunity to catch a riser at an extremely low click rate that can help us separate in our tournament lineups.
Aberg (pronounced “Oh Bear” - that will take some getting used to) is already on the fast track to super stardom. Absolute bonafide real deal golfer.
I think this is a terrific time to jump on the Eric Cole train - the course sets up fantastically for him and he was very popular last week and underwhelmed his price tag by making the cut on the number and a ho-hum T-35 finish. Getting back into competitive golf, carrying a bigger price tag around likelier more popular golfers, it’s a great time to take a shot with the man in joggers.
Doug Ghim was another underperformer last week at Sanderson, but did see a slight rise in his trend table performance and a sizable overall improvement from last week to this week in his game. He also resides in Las Vegas, for what it’s worth, and has made the cut here two years running. TPC Summerlin is one of the more predictive courses on Tour, so finding history with golfers you’re interested in playing isn’t going to hurt you this week.
It’s probably a crime that Adam Svensson is $8,200 this week. I’m guessing he’ll be a chalk monster, but if he’s 20% or less, I’m all over it.
Ryan Moore saw a big rise in his trend rank and is 3/4 made cuts here since 2019 and went T-36, T-13, cut, T-28 (last year) respectively.
Chad Ramey has another massive rise in the trend rank and is 2/2 made cut here placing a T-14 in 2022 and a T-28 last year. Dirt cheap.
I am not a “play Callum Tarren” guy, but might be the week. Big change for the positive in trend rank and has great distance that will be helpful here in giving him very small approaches.
Dufner has awful course history. Probably not considering him unless it’s MME (mass multi entry).
Tom Hoge came on strong last week and has a very positive trend rank and trend change. Might also be chalky.
Joel Dahmen has made the cut here every year for the past five years. Only one top 10, however. But a complete bargain basement price and at the tippy top of the trend field.
More thoughts to come later today.