Golf: Ace’s Shriner Children’s Hospital Open Tips

THANKS for all the comments after last weekend's winners at the WGC-HBC Champions and Sanderson Farms Open.

Hideki Matsuyama won at 22-1 in China and Cody Gribble collected his first PGA Tour success at a starting price of 100-1.

I didn't advise the double but I know people back it every week. It paid 2322-1 and it was good to see comments from punters who won up to £7000.

Picking both winners is likely to happen only once a season so I settle for one this week.

TPC Summerlin, Las Vegas, is the host for the Shriners Childrens Hospitals Open and it looks like it will be quite a good contest.

Summerlin is a par 71, 7255-yard course and one you can attack. Driving accuracy isn’t a prerequisite but last year half of the top-10 finishers were all in the top 10 for accuracy. Five also finished inside the top 10 for GIR and with the greens averaging 7570 square feet and running and around 11.5 on the stimpmeter scoring should be good.

Brendan Steele got off to a flier this season with his first win since 2011 at the Safeway Open three weeks ago and followed that up with a T26 at the CIMB. Last year he was hitting an average of more than 302 yards and was accurate (60.29%) off the tee.

His GIR was 68.72% and he has increased that to 75.69%%. He is 8th (1.636) in strokes gained:putting and just looks like he can grab another win this weekend.

Last Sunday I mentioned Lucas Glover had only had two bogeys in his first three rounds and was taking him as a back up to Gribble. He was playing really well until late in the round when he was maybe pushing too hard but really impressed me in the way he performed.

He is long off the tee and has DA of 66.67%, his GIR is a superb 80.56% (T5th). His stat for strokes gained:putting could be better although that’s taking into account his display at the Safeway Open. Last week he was 0.329, a big improvement from his last outing.

Chris Kirk last weekend coulda, shoulda, woulda won if he hadn’t come up against a man who just didn’t back off and went for everything. He is another who has started really well this season.

There was a lot of expectation last season but didn’t manage to follow up on the Crowne Plaza win in 2015. He has two top 10s this season (including a T2 at the Sanderson Farms) and certainly looks in form. His GIR is 76.39%, strokes gained:putting of 1.459 (11) and DA 54.46%.

This is a hard one to pick this week and I had another two in my short list. I’m not “officially” tipping them but I will say keep an eye on them. Left-hander Gribble loves to attack the hole (sometimes when he shouldn’t) and could be a good place bet.

Also Luke List, who had a great Sanderson Farms last week. He really pushed Gribble but his final-round 70 just wasn’t enough. Both Gribble and List came up from the Web.com Tour this season and look to have a good future in the game.

Recommended Bets

1.5pts ew Brendan Steele (William Hill, 40-1)
1.5pts ew Lucas Glover (Bet365, 80-1)
1.5pts ew Chris Kirk (Ladbrokes, 28-1)

Ace Venturer

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