Shriners Children’s Open RunDown

By RickRunGood

October 15, 2024

? Fore, Please:

This week is near and dear to my heart. Obviously it’s in my backyard and it’s the event/course that I’m most familiar with. I get my lessons out of TPC Summerlin and there’s a buzz that builds this time of year at the club.

The staff, course and area all deserve the spotlight that they get this week — they are all so awesome!

I hope you enjoy this week as much as I will. ?
Rick

? Content & Contests

Finally! The Wednesday Live Chat is back to its regular time — 3:00 PM ET. I will see you there or I’ll see you another time.
There’s only 150 entries available in our Listener League for this week and you guys keep letting me make all this free money! Let me see another name at the top of the board!

? Last Week’s Optimal Lineup

? Rounds of the Week

1) +9.32: Rattanon Wannasrichan | R1 of the Macao Open
2) +8.94: Adam Svensson | R1 of the Black Desert Championship
3) +7.33: Lucas Glover | R4 of the Black Desert Championship
3) +7.33: Matti Schmid | R4 of the Black Desert Championship
5) +7.32: Sam Brazel | R1 of the Macao Open

? Note: Wannasrichan’s round was the 3rd best round of 2024 on the Asian Tour.

? Comfortable In The Winners Circle

This is becoming a habit for Matt McCarty who has raised the trophy in four of his last ten starts across the PGA TOUR and KFT. What I loveeeee about his win in Utah is that it was true to his DNA.

There’s a lack of advanced stats for MM who played on the KFT last season. But he was clearly one of the best putters on the circuit and leaned on his stout short-game. Then he’s able to hit enough fairways and greens to give himself birdie looks — which he converts at a rate much higher than his peers.

In Utah, he gained 60% of his strokes in the two short-game categories. He actually lost strokes on approach in each of the final three rounds but he was able to make up for those small losses in a variety of ways.

He’s not the modern ball-striking stud that we see more frequently now on the TOUR. He’s doing it a different way and I love it.

? Compare & Contrast

Since our brains are still fresh on Black Desert Resort, I’ll use that as a baseline to help compare and contrast the challenges seen at TPC Summerlin this week.

They are both desert courses.
They both have sizable penalties for missing the landing areas.
They both play over 2,000’ of altitude.
They both have large greens over 7,000 sq. feet on average.
They are both very easy courses where pars are for losers.

Landing Zone Comparison at 300 Yards

One of the biggest differences for me will be the generosity of those landing areas. At Black Desert Resort, golfers often had 60, 70 or even 80 yards of grass width before finding the rocks. That will be much less forgiving at TPC Summerlin. Many of the “grassy areas” are 50 yards wide or less. Also, BDR had “bumper fairways” which curled up on the edges to keep the ball in the fairway. That doesn’t exist at TPC Summerlin.

The short-game areas at TPC Summerlin can certainly be more tricky than at Black Desert Resort. Summerlin has twice the number of bunkers (92 vs 44) and you really need to pay attention on short-game shots. They aren’t overly challenging but we’ve seen plenty of guys cough up strokes in this part of the game.

It’s also worth noting that the new grass at TPC Summerlin is absolutely mint. It’s been two years since they re-did all the fairways and greens and the course is in as good of shape as I’ve ever seen. I was out there last week and I was highly impressed.

? I Got You Covered (With Shade)

If you’re going to the @ShrinersOpen next week, these are definitely the best places to watch the tournament. pic.twitter.com/6SQl4t9gxh

— Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood) October 9, 2024

Enjoy the week!

? Call The Fire Department

The second nine at TPC Summerlin is electric. If you think your golfer is too far back while standing on the 13th tee — you. are. wrong!

13: Par-5 that plays like a 4.5.
14: shortest par-3 on the course, usually a wedge.
15: Drivable par-4.
16: Par-5 that plays like a 4.5.
17: okay, this is a tough par-3.
18: two strong shots can generate a birdie.

If you include number nine, there are four (!!!) holes in the final ten that will play a half stroke under par. That’s nuts! You’re going to see a 29 (or two) on this side.

? Dominating Putters

The most correlated stat to success at TPC Summerlin has been SG: Putting — dating back ~12 years. There are only 10 other courses on the TOUR schedule where SG: PUTT is more correlated to success.

There is also a strong correlation towards 4’-8’ putting, putts from 6’ and putts inside 10’.

Best Putters Model

I put together a model that looks at only putting but in a variety of ways. Those putting ranges plus bonus putting and also bentgrass specialists.

It’s not lost on me that Suh, Hall, Montgomery and McNealy all have Vegas ties. These stats date back to January 1st, 2023.

⌨️ The Magic Website Keys

I’ll do my best to continually showcase the new updates to RickRunGood.com and for today, let’s talk Keyboard Shortcuts.

You’ll notice there are little “key icons” throughout the site — like “R” next to the results header. That is the keystroke that will take you to the results section and expand it for the full view. On the golfer profiles, these shortcuts exist for each section. The “CTRL + K” combination will open up the player search function.

I’ve found these to be really helpful once I got used to them, especially the search aspect to quickly change between pages.

? Defying The Odds: Brendon Todd

Over the last three starts, Brendon Todd has lost a total of 7.324 strokes to the field on approach. That is usually a recipe for disaster on TOUR but Todd has turned in respectable results in the process — T12, T22, T44.

Todd’s Last Six Starts

He’s been able to off-set those losses (and then some) with his short-game. He’s picked up 25.47 strokes putting in his last 24 rounds and has only lost strokes around-the-green once in his last 10 starts.

On paper, TPC Summerlin should suit Todd who plays an accuracy game off-the-tee and then relies on the rest of his skills to get the ball in the cup.