Those who like to rely on a deep form book will be relieved perhaps to move on to Las Vegas this week for the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
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Essentially we’re looking for a neat, tidy player, with good wedge and birdie average stats and the pick of the bunch is one of those former champions in Moore. Koepka is the second highest ranked player in this field and obviously has a liking for this layout. He has four top-10 finishes this year, two of which have come in his last five events.
The victory, worth $1.08 million, launched Martin to an outstanding 2014-15 season during which he earned $2.71 million and finished 35th on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup list. “I think I’m going to pay more attention to what they do and try to learn from them”.
Emiliano Grillo and Kevin Na supplied plenty of drama in last week’s Frys.com Open, the first tournament in the 2015-16 PGA Tour season. Those results helped land him a spot in the Web.com Tour Finals, in which he finished ninth in the Hotel Fitness Championship, tied for second in the Small Business Connection Championship at River Run and won the Web.com Tour Championship to earn his PGA Tour card. This year, Summerlin will be the only course played as it has been since 2006.
Fowler is just two weeks removed from a middling performance at the Presidents Cup, and he admitted that his game remains rusty: “I don’t have my best right now”, he said. We have an entertaining course in terms of scoring and the field is pretty solid as well.
Scott Piercy is in rather good form in recent starts and having recorded three top tens in his last four starts in Las Vegas he could well be one for slightly longer odds. Even though he was anonymous throughout most of the season that just ended, Moore should find success on a familiar course. Palmer’s father is a big part of Shriners global and the player himself has commented on the emotional significance of this tournament.
Another hot trio at TPC Summerlin for the first two rounds will be the major champion group of 2012 US Open champion Webb Simpson, 2013 PGA Championship victor Jason Dufner and 2011 PGA Championship victor Keegan Bradley. Still working through a swing change with instructor Butch Harmon, Fowler missed seven cuts in a 14-start stretch during the spring of 2014.
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Fowler played 21 US PGA events last season, the fewest since he became a full-time player in 2010. Like on most tracks, it is hard to go wrong with such a combination.
