PGA Tour: Shriners Preview
Best Bets:
1 Pt EW Ryan Moore (25/1 Bet 365)
1 Pt EW Scott Piercy (40/1 Ladbrokes)
The PGA Tour season got underway last week at the Frys.Com open and Boston Gambler backed the eventual winner Emiliano Grillo at best odds of 55/1. This was a great start to the season for us and we are looking to continue that great start this week at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open where we have a couple of each way selections.
The Shriners will be played at usual venue TPC Summerlin this year. Summerlin is a 7,255 par 71 track that runs through the Nevada desert. The course tends to suit certain players with a lot of past form trends on this track. At 7,255 yards the course doesn’t give the bigger hitters a massive advantage, and shorter hitters such as Ben Martin have won on this layout. One thing that the Shriners will give us is birdies. The course isn’t massively difficult with the last five winners all going beyond 20 under par. Another talking point is the return of world number 5 Rickie Fowler this week. Fowler will tee it up at the Shriners hoping to get his season off to the perfect start.
Our Tips:
1 Pt EW Ryan Moore (25/1 Bet 365)
A lot of things point towards Ryan Moore this week and he headlines our tips for this week. Moore is a Las Vegas resident and went to college at UNLV, so this is a home event for him. Moore holds the 72 hole scoring record on this course shooting 260 back in 2012 on his way to winning. In 2013 he also posted a top 10 on this course so he clearly loves the venue. Adding to this he shot 67 68 over the weekend at the Frys.Com last week to post a top 10 finish. Considering all of these factors we have to go with Moore as our headline choice. He is much shorter than he usually would be, but that is only because so many factors are in his favour for this week in Nevada.
1 Pt EW Scott Piercy (40/1 Ladbrokes)
Piercy had a breakout season last year making it all the way to the Tour Championship finale. He has moved in to the world top 50 and had the luxury of sitting out the Frys.Com Open last week. He gets his season underway this week at the Shriners on a course he loves. Piercy has placed in the top 15 in this competition in 3 of the last 4 years showing incredible consistency on this course. He finished third recently in the BMW Championship showing he is embracing his status as a top 50 golfer. He also made the trip across the Atlantic recently to play in the Dunhill Links in Scotland. Piercy carded a highly credible top 30 in this competition showing his game is in good shape going in to the new season. He looks good value, and we expect him to have a strong week.