BlogShriners Hospitals Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

A very popular event, it has all of the glamour of Las Vegas on a course that a lot of players like to play on.  Other than the WGC-HSBC Champions, this event will probably have the most marquee names.  For some this will be a fun week with a little bit of golf mixed in with the fast-pace action of Las Vegas.

Founded in 1983 as the Panasonic Las Vegas Pro-Celebrity Classic, the event has undergone six name changes in the events history. Frys.Com became the Title Sponsor for the event in 2006, replacing its former title, the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas.  2007 was the final year of Fry’s involvement and in 2008 Justin Timberlake took on the duties of becoming the tournament presenter with Shriners Hospitals for Children sponsoring the event.  Timberlake is no longer associated with the tournament.

At the tournament’s inception, the managers of the tournament prided themselves on running a tournament that stood out amongst the slew of annual PGA events. It was the first event to offer a total purse of $1 million; at the trophy presentation, the winner used to receive his trophy with two showgirls by his side. Though these ideas help separate the event from others, the most drastic deviation from the norm is the tournament’s format, which in a way “borrowed” the format at the Bob Hope Open.

In its inception, the tournament was played over five rounds at between three and four courses. However, in 2003, when the original tournament founders abdicated control to another volunteer organization, the event was immediately switched to the more conventional four round format. Over the years, courses have been dropped and for the sixth straight year it’s only played on the TPC Summerlin.

One thing about this event, it’s always nice winning an event but for some of it’s past champions they never got back to the winners circle again on the PGA Tour.  Looked at the 14 past winners since 2000, only six Jonathan Byrd (2010), Martin Laird (2009), George McNeill (2007), Troy Matteson (2006), Stuart Appleby (2003) and Bob Estes (2001) won again.  The others, Ryan Moore (2012), Kevin Na (2011), Marc Turnesa (2008), Wes Short Jr. (2005), Andre Stolz (2004), Phil Tataurangi (2002) and Billy Andrade (2000) never made it back to the winners circle and some of them don’t even play anymore on the PGA Tour.

Advantages of the Wrap-around schedule:

What a great world the PGA Tour is.  Just look at some of the players that had high finishes at the Frys.com.  Winner Sang-Moon Bae can now have a comfortable 2015, which is still three months away.  With Bae’s victory we know that his Christmas will be special how great it will feel to be the first winner of 2015, even though it’s three months away.  The same for players like Steven Bowditch, he now doesn’t have to worry about the year because he has gotten it off in the proper manner with his runner-up finish.  Even guys like Zachary Blair, who was playing in just his second PGA Tour event, his T-12th has put $117,600 in his pocket.  Gosh, how far things have gotten, in 1964 Jack Nicklaus won the money race with $113,284 less than what Blair made.  Oh it took Ben Hogan 16 years on the PGA Tour before he won his first $100,000.  Going a step further, Gene Sarazen collected money on the PGA Tour between 1920 and 1976 and this may seem hard to believe but in his 56 years of playing he won 38 times, seven of them majors and only won $77,787.  So it’s nice to see all these guys doing so well with the first day of 2015 still 80 days away.

Ryder Cup and Tom Watson:

It looks more and more like Tom Watson will go down as the worst captain in Ryder Cup history.  Lot’s of news is filtering out of the Saturday night dinner at Gleneagles, and it’s pretty obvious that Watson didn’t win the respect of his 12 players.  We have heard stories of how Lee Trevino in 1985 wasn’t a very good captain, and we all know that Nick Faldo didn’t have much respect from his players.  But it looks like Watson was not the guy that should have been the Captain.  His communication skills were lacking, and he tried to do the same things he did in 1993 but that was a different generation of players, and he was 44 years-old.  One thing we won’t see again, I don’t think that we will ever see a captain over 55 years-old.  Captains will have to communicate with his players better, many pointed out that Paul Azinger did that.  Many are hopping that he will be the next Captain, I don’t think the PGA of America will do that.  If they do it will show that they have done a terrible job since Azinger won the Cup back in 2008, so keeping there pride will be paramount.  I also don’t think we will see Steve Stricker, a player that many feels could Captain, the next team.  Just think that Stricker won’t want to spend a good year of his life doing this and will turn it down.  I don’t know this for a fact, just a feeling.

Who knows, maybe it will be Jim Furyk’s time, I can’t see him playing anymore and he is popular among the players. I would like to see Davis Love III have another shot, but it probably won’t happen.  Guess we will just have to wait, don’t expect an answer from the PGA of American anytime soon, it will be the start of the year before we find out what is happening.

Course information:

• TPC Summerlin was designed by Bobby Weed and Fuzzy Zoeller in 1992. The Par 71 course measures 7,243 yards. It has a course rating of 74.3 and a slope rating of 139. The tees, fairways, and rough all comprise of 419 Bermuda Grass, cut at 3/8″, 3/8″, and 2″ respectively. The greens consist of a 1/8″ cut of A-1/A-4 Creeping Bent Grass. This short cut mixed with the always speedy Bent Grass explains the rather Stimpmeter reading of 11 feet. As for hazards, the course features 85 sand bunkers and water comes into play on four holes.
• The signature hole at TPC Summerlin is the short 341-yard par four 15th hole. The large elevated green is reachable from the tee; however, numerous bunkers guard the green, making the play risky, but possibly very rewarding. As for accolades, Golf Digest rated this as the fourth “Best in State” course for 1995-96, and the fifth best for 1997-98. Also, GolfWeek awarded it 98th in the category of “America’s 100 Best Modern Courses” for 1997.
• Last year was the sixth time that Summerlin was the only course used and they made a big change in 2009 by changing par to 71 by making the third hole a long par 4 at 473 yards.  In addition to this change, 14 trees were added along the right side of the fairways on Nos. 9 and 16, both par 5s. The rough also was grown longer than in years past and for holes 7, 9, 11, 12, 13 and 16 the fairways are going to be between 3 and 5 yards narrower than in 2008.  All of these changed to try and make the course play a bit tougher.  In 2008 Summerlin played to an average of 69.070, while in 2009 with par reduced it played just about the same, 69.152. In 2010 it played to a 68.956 average, while in 2011 it was 68.883, 2012 was 69.713 and the 40th toughest course at of 49. Last year the course played to a 69.546 average and was the 43rd hardest course out of 48.
• Lot’s of birdies are made on this course, but if it gets windy, it could be a totally different course that takes a lot of precision.  The finish is demanding with the par 3 17th hole playing the fourth hardest at 3.104 while the 18th hole is the 8th hardest at 3.980..

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open:

Key stat for the winner:

Making lots of birdies is important.  The average for the last 17 years is 27 and a half.  Since the event went to 72 holes in 2004 it’s been 24 and a half which averages just a notch over six birdies a round.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• With fairways that are wide open, fairways with lots of roll, dominating the par 5s has been a key.  It’s also interesting to note that in the last nine years the winners have averaged 11 under par on the par 4s.  Last year Webb Simpson was 12 under the same as Ryan Moore was in 2012. Jonathan Byrd was the best at 14 under in 2010 while the least lowest was 6 under by George McNeill in 2007.
• Being an accurate driver, a long driver or a person that hits a lot of greens doesn’t give you a big advantage.  Scrambling is very important plus not making many bogeys.  If there ever was a tournament that favors the newcomer, this is it.
• Most of the time the weather is wonderful, but every now and then high winds bring big challenges to the players, those that can handle these conditions have the advantage.
• You have to realize were your at, in Las Vegas “lady luck” is very important in winning, a lot of players that you would never think would win have found the “luck factor” in victory.