The PGA TOUR heads to Las Vegas this week for the Shriners Children’s Open.
TPC Summerlin returns as a familiar host venue. They’ve done a turf makeover since last year but the course layout is unchanged so course history should still be useful.
Las Vegas is obviously a big gambling town so let’s dive into the betting markets to see what tournament matchups pop off the page at the Shriners.
Aaron Wise over Max Homa - Tournament Matchup (+100)
These two are both comfortable in the desert as residents of the Southwest so there is no advantage in that regard.
What stands out here first is the course history differential. Homa is just 1-for-5 at TPC Summerlin with a 30th-place finish being his lone payday. For Wise, he has three top 15s in six tries. That puts one checkmark in the Wise bucket.
It’s not all history, though, as we know Homa has really improved his game in recent years. That brings us to head-to-head matchups from the 2022 campaign. These two played in 14 events together and Wise leads the way with a 7-5-2 in terms of who finished higher at week’s end.
So, while Homa has proven he has major win equity these days, Wise has been more consistent when playing in similar events and also brings much better course history to the table. Take the plus-money price here.
Taylor Pendrith over Alex Noren - Tournament Matchup (+100)
I gravitated to the plus-money direction again with another matchup.
Pendrith is looking to rebound from a disappointing Presidents Cup experience while Noren is entering the week just a few days removed from a near-win in Scotland. Noren is making his course debut at TPC Summerlin and I find it a little odd that he would schedule his fall events with extreme travel like this. I give a slight edge to Pendrith out of the gate just with the potential for Noren jetlag.
After that, we can go look at crossover events where both golfers played the same event last season. There were nine of them and Pendrith got the better of Noren in six of them which implies the wrong golfer may be favored in this matchup. I’ll take the plus-money odds with Taylor P.