Next month’s Masters is doubtless the main focus of Bryson DeChambeau, but first golf’s latest Major champion has the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in his sights. The cocksure Californian is 7/1 favourite.
DeChambeau won the Las Vegas event in 2018 and has form figures of 7-1-4 there from the last three years, so it is hardly surprising that the US Open victor dominates the betting. He destroyed Winged Foot with a six-under-par score and was the only player who managed an under-par 72-hole total, emphatically justifying his bulked-up body and ultra-aggressive tactics.
The question for the betting community this week is whether DeChambeau will have the same focus and intensity for a standard PGA Tour event which he has already won before. He has failed to finish in the top 20 in his last four regulation Tour outings – and the straightforward nature of the course may hinder the best players from asserting their superiority.
DeChambeau starts his Shriners campaign in the company of Cameron Champ and Matthew Wolff – a power-packed threeball which may turn into an unofficial and unsettling long-drive competition.
Cantlay Seeking to Avenge Summerlin Near-Misses
The 2017 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open was a much tougher than usual edition, where strong winds made birdies difficult to come by, and Patrick Cantlay took advantage by becoming champion with a nine-under-par total and a subsequent playoff success.
Since the return to more typical Las Vegas conditions and a 20-under-par-or-better birdiefest, Cantlay has not enjoyed such good fortune – he lost by a shot to Bryson DeChambeau in 2018 and then in a playoff to Kevin Na last season. Na, in fact, produced one of the most incredible putting performances in PGA Tour history to deny Cantlay.
With a bit more luck here and there, Cantlay could have been teeing up this week gunning for four consecutive Shriners titles, so there is something about TPC Summerlin which the Florida-based Californian relishes.
Cantlay’s course credentials mean the 14/1 seems certain to be taken by many, but he has only two PGA Tour victories to his name and his post-lockdown form has been unconvincing, with nothing better than seventh place in eight starts.
Youngsters May Be Ready to Threaten Maiden PGA Tour Title
With some doubts over the market principals, this may be a week where some of the PGA Tour’s most talented maidens can make an impression. Maverick McNealy at 100/1 and Justin Suh at 200/1 are a pair of lively outsiders seeking their breakthrough.
McNealy and Suh are both former world number one amateurs, who were prolific champions in their college days, and PGA Tour success has seemed inevitable. At the ages of 24 and 23, time is on their side, and they both impressed in their last start – McNealy finished strongly for 17th place in the Sanderson Farms Championship and Suh took advantage of a sponsors invite to finish 14th in the Corales Championship. Both men are Vegas residents who know TPC Summerlin well.
*All odds correct at time of writing
