This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
Shriners Children's Open
Las Vegas, Nevada
TPC Summerlin - Par 71 - 7,255 yards
Field - 132 entrants
Purse - $7.0M
The Preview
The PGA Tour remains out west after Utah's backdrop for last week's Black Desert Championship received glowing reviews, with Sin City and the Las Vegas strip setting the stage this week. As it has since 1992, TPC Summerlin once again plays host to the Shriners Children's Open, where aside from a few reachable par-5s, driving prowess takes a back seat to approach proximity and putting on these enormous bentgrass greens. The champion of this event has reached the 20-under-par mark in each of the past six years, but a strong breeze and cooler temps from Thursday afternoon through Saturday morning call for less favorable scoring conditions.
Recent Champions
2023 - Tom Kim
2022 - Tom Kim
2021 - Sungjae Im
2020 - Martin Laird
2019 - Kevin Na
2018 - Bryson DeChambeau
2017 - Patrick Cantlay
2016 - Rod Pampling
2015 - Smylie Kaufman
2014 - Ben Martin
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Approach
Birdie or Better percentage
SG: Putting (bentgrass)
Proximity
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Tom Kim - $38
Making his first individual tournament appearance (excluding Presidents Cup) since the FedEx St. Jude Championship in mid-August, a well-rested Kim will attempt to three-peat this week at TPC Summerlin where the two-time defending champion is a collective 44-under-par since his 2022 Shriners debut. Across these eight rounds in Vegas, Kim gained 11.8 strokes on the greens and another 13.3 strokes with his irons. Over his past 24 measured rounds, the 22-year-old ranks sixth or better in each of SG: APP, overall proximity and Opportunities Gained. On a less positive note, however, is that he's unfortunately grouped in the PM/AM tee-time wave that's expected to be most impacted by brutal winds throughout the first two rounds. As such, Kim certainly isn't an automatic GPP click despite landing an affordable $38 salary as the obvious tournament favorite, especially considering how inflated his ownership projects to be. Given Yahoo's soft pricing and a field devoid of superstars, it's okay to leave a couple dollars worth of salary on the table in large-field GPP lineups where you do deploy Kim, as one of the pulled levers in the path to uniqueness.
Taylor Pendrith - $35
Also making his FedExCup Fall debut is Pendrith, who's gained an average of 2.3 strokes putting per event across 12 starts since his win at THE CJ CUP Byron Nelson. The Canadian has gained strokes on his approach shots in six of seven outings dating to the U.S. Open, and he's sixth in Birdies or Better Gained over his last 36 rounds. Additionally, Pendrith tied for third here last year when he hit 60 of 72 greens in regulation on the way to just three total bogeys.
Glue Guys
Eric Cole - $34
Cole is coming off a 16th-place effort at the Sanderson Farms Championship where he gained a career-high 10 strokes on approach, while losing a career-worst 4.2 strokes with the flat stick. Expect each of those to regress toward their means this week, but he's still No. 1 in Opps Gained, fourth in Par-5 Efficiency and eighth in overall proximity over his last 24 rounds. Cole has only played six career rounds at TPC Summerlin, but he gained 11.5 strokes from tee to green here last year en route to a T3 finish.
Kurt Kitayama - $33
Kitayama ranked dead last among those who made the cut in SG: Putting at last week's Black Desert Championship, but he finished second in SG: APP and T9 in GIR percentage on the way to a T25 result. The UNLV product is 0-for-3 in attempts to make a cut at the Shriners Children's Open, but the hope is that lousy course history on such a small sample helps cap the ownership of a player with this much ball-striking upside.
Beau Hossler - $32
Hossler avoided a letdown after losing in a playoff to Kevin Yu at the Sanderson Farms Championship, rallying for an 11th-place finish in Utah last week where he gained nearly 10 strokes from tee to green while tallying 19 total par-breakers. Hossler has leaned heavily on his short game in the past at TPC Summerlin where he's a perfect 6-for-6 in cuts made, but he also posted a top-10 here last year when he gained 4.5 strokes with his ball striking alone. Over his last 24 rounds, Hossler sits sixth in Birdies or Better Gained, seventh in Prox: 150-175 and ninth in SG: Off-the-Tee.
Bargain Bin
Seamus Power - $29
Power should be grouped in the names at $34-$35, so this is a solid discount on someone that's gained an average of 4.6 strokes from tee to green and 1.2 strokes putting per event throughout their last five starts, notably placing T10-T11-T11 from the FedEx St. Jude Championship to the Black Desert Championship. Power racked up 18 total birdies and two eagles in Utah last week, where he also finished eighth among the field in both SG: APP and driving accuracy.
Matti Schmid - $26
Schmid fired a 63 in the final round of his Shriners Children's Open debut last year, ultimately recording 21 total birdies and an eagle while gaining 7.1 strokes with his ball striking en route to a T26 finish here. He's most recently improved throughout each of his first three starts of the FedExCup Fall, placing T58-T16-5 from the Procore Championship to last week's Black Desert Championship, where he gained a career-high 6.7 strokes putting while also gaining strokes with his irons for a fifth consecutive outing.
Matt McCarty - $20
Playing pressure-free golf after winning three times in a span of six Korn Ferry Tour starts from the Price Cutter Charity Championship through the Albertsons Boise Open foreshadowed McCarty's maiden PGA Tour victory at this past week's Black Desert Championship. Las Vegas certainly isn't the tamest of locations to celebrate your greatest career achievement to date, but McCarty's Yahoo salary hasn't yet budged from the $20 minimum, which is too severe of a misprice to entirely ignore. McCarty is already one of the better players in this field, and now he's proven that his ceiling at this level is a win when the putter gets rolling like it did last week.
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