The strongest PGA Tour field we’ve seen since the U.S. Open is in Las Vegas this week for the 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
The strongest PGA Tour field we’ve seen since the U.S. Open is in Las Vegas this week for the 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. The 144-man field is fronted by U.S. Open champ and Golfweek/Sagarin‘s 10th-ranked golfer, Bryson DeChambeau, who’s the tournament betting favorite at +650. Below, we look at the 2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open betting odds, and make our PGA Tour picks and best bets to win.
2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children Open Betting Picks – Favorite
Scheffler was the prohibitive betting favorite for last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship at +900 on the pre-tournament odds. He finished just T-37 in his first event since the Tour Championship after having to withdraw from the U.S. Open following a positive COVID-19 test.
His betting odds have risen considerably in the much stronger field, but he’s now a tremendous value while sharing the eighth-best odds to win. Scheffler placed in the top five in three of his last four events prior to his forced break, all against stiff competition in the PGA Championship and through the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
His early return to play last week is likely to prove a benefit over this week’s other top contenders.
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2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children OpenBetting Picks – Contender
Matt Kuchar (+9000)
This is purely a value pick for the 32nd-ranked golfer in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Kuchar missed the cut at both the PGA Championship and U.S. Open against the world’s best, but he mixed in a T-25 finish at the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and a T-18 at The Northern Trust in his last five events.
He has played 13 career rounds at TPC Summerlin with an average of 1.35 strokes gained per round on the field, according to Data Golf. He has the short game and putting stroke to get back on track in Las Vegas as he prepares for another run at the Masters in a little over a month’s time.
2020 Shriners Hospitals for Children OpenBetting Picks – Long shot
MJ Daffue (+17500)
The stronger field this week greatly lowers the chances for a long-shot winner in Sin City, but Daffue is coming off a T-12 finish last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship. He led the field with 1.96 Strokes Gained: Approach per round and ranked fourth with 2.62 SG: Tee-to-Green.
The 31-year-old South African also tied for 22nd at the Workday Charity Open in a strong field in mid-July. He’s one of just 13 golfers in the field debuting at TPC Summerlin, but he’s worth a shot with a $10 bet returning a profit of $1,750.
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Scottie Scheffler withdrew from the U.S. Open after testing positive for coronavirus, but he’s got a clean bill of health and chasing a win.
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JACKSON, Miss. – Watching the U.S. Open on television gave Scottie Scheffler, well, a sick feeling. The reigning PGA Tour Rookie of the Year withdrew from the national championship after testing positive for coronavirus on the Sunday before Bryson DeChambeau bludgeoned the field by six strokes.
“Not a break I necessarily wanted, but I felt all right, so it’s good to be back out here feeling healthy again,” Scheffler said ahead of the Sanderson Farms Championship.
With a clean bill of health, Scheffler, who was asymptomatic, is set to launch his 2020-21 PGA Tour season this week as the second highest-ranked player in the field (World No. 30, and behind only Sung-Jae Im). Scheffler was the first player on the PGA Tour to test positive after a run of six weeks without a positive case. Scheffler failed a required in-home test in Dallas before traveling to New York for the championship at Winged Foot.
“I felt all right, and only one person I knew was also infected, and so we kept our circle pretty small, and it paid off for us,” he said. “It definitely stunk sitting at home all week watching the U.S. Open, especially the way I was playing leading into it. I felt like I had a good chance of winning. It stunk, but it’s the world we live in. I felt OK, so very blessed to have felt good through all of it and came out on the other side recovered, so all good.”
Scheffler would have entered the U.S. Open as a dark-horse contender – he was being given odds of 40-to-1 – considering his run of good form. He threatened at the PGA Championship, eventually finishing tied for fourth, and followed it up with an impressive performance in the three FedEx Cup Playoff events: tied for fourth at the Northern Trust, tied for second at the BMW Championship and had the second-lowest 72-hole aggregate score at the Tour Championship. What was it like missing a major he thought he could win?
“It kind of bummed me out watching everybody on TV,” he said.
Scheffler’s roller coaster of highs and lows also included writing his name into the record books for shooting 59 in the second round of the Northern Trust, the FedEx Cup playoff opener. All told, Scheffler posted seven top-10 finishes last season while banking more than $5 million – $2,833,448 in official earnings and a FedEx Cup bonus of $2.5 million – not too shabby for a Texas grad who missed the deadline to register for the 2018 Mackenzie Tour Q-School by 10 minutes. Scheffler’s consistency last season was rewarded with being named the Tour’s Rookie of the Year. Scheffler was quarantined at home when he was informed of the honor.
Scottie Scheffler holds up his ball and scorecard in celebration after scoring a 59 during the second round of the 2020 Northern Trust at TPC Boston on August 21, 2020 in Norton, Massachusetts. Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
“If you had told me that was going to be my results going in, I would have been pleased,” he said of his rookie campaign. “I would have liked to have had a win last year, but I feel like that’s coming on the horizon, and my game feels like it’s in a good spot for sure.”
Rookie of the Year followed up being named Player of the Year the previous season on the Korn Ferry Tour. All that’s missing for Scheffler is that elusive first victory. Scheffler is competing at the Sanderson Farms Championship for the third time, and has finished T-45 and T-19 the past two years at a Country Club of Jackson course he called “a hidden gem on Tour,” and where a first-time champion has been crowned in all six playings of the tournament here.
“I feel my game is still in a good spot,” he said. “I think there’s still a few areas that are a little rusty just from having not played tournament golf in the last three weeks. A little different feeling coming into this week. I’m not as in rhythm as I usually am, but hopefully I’ll pick back up soon.”
Scottie Scheffler tested positive for COVID-19 and although he’s asymptomatic, was forced to withdraw from the event, which starts Thursday.
Scottie Scheffler, who won 2019 Korn Ferry Tour Rookie of the Year and is poised to win the same award from the PGA Tour for the recently completed 2019-20 campaign, will not be in the field at Winged Foot this week for the U.S. Open.
Scheffler tested positive for COVID-19 and although he’s asymptomatic, the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur champion and a member of the victorious 2017 USA Walker Cup team, was forced to withdraw from the event, which starts Thursday.
“We are sorry to lose a member of the USGA family in this year’s U.S. Open field,” said John Bodenhamer, USGA senior managing director, Championships. “Scottie has had a phenomenal rookie season and we look forward to welcoming him back to the U.S. Open Championship for many years to come.”
The former University of Texas star has finished in the top 10 seven times during his rookie campaign on Tour and was hoping to build on previous U.S. Open success — he was the low amateur at Erin Hills in 2017, when he tied for 27th.
Scheffler’s withdrawal opens a spot for South African Branden Grace.
Brooks Koepka also withdrew from the field Wednesday. The two-time U.S. Open winner withdrew from the FedEx Cup Playoffs ahead of the Northern Trust citing a knee and hip-related injury.
After schedule conflicts at The Glen Club, this week’s Korn Ferry Tour event will take place at the Chicago Highlands Club.
The Evans Scholars Invitational has a new home. For now.
After schedule conflicts at the fledgling tournament’s previous home, The Glen Club, this week’s Korn Ferry Tour event will take place at the Chicago Highlands Club, a par-72 course that opened in 2010 in nearby Westchester. The second-ever edition of the Evans Scholars Invitational was originally scheduled for May, but due to COVID-19, it will take place this week — on a links-style course that occupies 270 acres and features over 80 feet of elevation changes against the backdrop of the Chicago skyline. The tournament is slated to return to The Glen Club in 2021.
Last year’s inaugural event featured plenty of drama. Scottie Scheffler carded a final-round 63 to overcome a six-stroke deficit before defeating Colombia’s Marcelo Rozo with a second-hole birdie in a playoff. As many fans know, Scheffler has since become one of golf’s brightest young stars. The 24-year old is a favorite for this year’s PGA Tour Rookie of the Year award and finished the season ranked fifth in the FedExCup standings.
Other notable competitors include Chicago native Vince India, who has made 10 of his last 12 cuts. The 31-year old earned a career-best T-3 finish two weeks ago at the Korn Ferry Tour Championship. Charlie Saxon of Tulsa, Oklahoma, has been inside the top 10 after 13 of his last 17 rounds, and the 27-year old will try to break into the winner’s circle for the first time this season. Also expected to be in the hunt is England’s Harry Hall. At just 23 years of age, Hall achieved a career-best T-2 finish last week in just his fifth career start.
Eric Leadbetter, one of the assistant pros at TPC Boston, caddied for Scottie Scheffler on the back nine of Sunday’s round.
It’s always good to have someone solid on the bag.
For Scottie Scheffler, that would be his caddie Scott McGuiness, who helped Scheffler post the 12th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history when Scheffler shot a 59 on Friday in the second round of the Northern Trust.
But on Sunday, McGuiness needed medical attention on the 9th hole and had to step away for the final stretch of Scheffler’s final round.
Eric Leadbetter, one of the assistant pros at TPC Boston, caddied for Scheffler on the back nine of Sunday’s round. It was not immediately clear as McGuiness was being taken away on a cart whether he injured his ankle or was suffering from cramps.
Leadbetter comes with rave reviews.
“He knows every blade of grass around here,” say the other pros from the club of Leadbetter.
Eric Leadbetter, one of the assistant pros at TPC Boston, puts on a caddie bib for Scottie Scheffler on the back nine of the final round at the 2020 Northern Trust. Photo by David Dusek/Golfweek
Scheffler started his final round in second, but, like everyone else in the field, was simply no match for Dustin Johnson, who opened up a seven-shot lead through 10 holes and is seemingly on cruise control toward his 22nd Tour victory.
The second round of the Northern Trust was a wild day of scoring, especially for Dustin Johnson and Scottie Scheffler.
NORTON, Mass. – Danny Lee walked off the golf course after shooting a 64, signed his scorecard and talked with a couple of media members. He was one of the first players to complete his loop of TPC Boston on Friday morning, and his name was at the top of the leaderboard. Anyone who shoots 66-64 to start a tournament has the right to pump out his chest a little and feel good about things, but by the time Lee’s rental car rolled down the driveway and turned onto Route 40, his fantastic start at the 2020 Northern Trust would be forgotten.
The course, originally designed by Arnold Palmer in 2002 and updated in 2017 by Gil Hanse, became an aviary on Friday. Birdies and eagles were flying everywhere, and Scottie Scheffler and Dustin Johnson were hunting.
Scheffler set a tournament course and posted the 12th sub-60 round ever on the PGA Tour, shooting a 59 in the morning wave that included 12 birdies. He finished at 13 under. But five hours after he holed a 4-footer on the 18th green, Johnson missed a 25-footer on the same hole for a 59. He tapped in from 2 feet for a 60.
At 15-under, Johnson will take a two-shot lead over Scheffler and Cameron Davis (who had a second-round 65) into the third round of the Northern Trust. He will have a three-shot lead over Lee, Louis Oosthuizen (65) and Harris English (66).
“Today was obviously a good day on the course. I got off to a really good start and made a bunch of birdies on the front nine,” Scheffler said. “Had some key up-and-downs at the beginning of the round that kind of got me rolling, freed me up a little bit. Then the momentum just kind of kept going. I never really lost momentum, which was nice. A lot of times, when you’re playing well, you can lose that momentum toward the end of the round or have a hiccup here or there. The momentum stayed the whole time, and I made a lot of putts.”
After hitting 16 of 18 greens in regulation, Scheffler needed just 23 putts on Friday.
Johnson, who is ranked No. 4 on the Official World Golf Rankings and started the day at 4 under, surged up the leaderboard and set a front-nine tournament record by shooting 27. He made five birdies and two eagles and then birdied the next two holes to reach 11-under par for the day through 11 holes.
Had fans been lining the ropes lines and filling the bleachers, as there have been in past years, the noise would have rivaled the roars heard when the New England Patriots score at Gillette Stadium.
“Everything was going well today,” Johnson said. “Any time you’re that many under through 11 holes, you’re putting well. I made some nice putts, but also I hit some really good shots.”
After having a terrible putting day on Thursday morning, Johnson hit the practice green Thursday afternoon and found a spark using a drill that helps him position his right arm more effectively. He repeated the exercise on Friday before his round and utilized it before several putts on the course Friday. It paid off because Johnson made over 151 feet of putts in the second round and was the leader in strokes gained putting for the day, too (5.132).
Both Scheffler and Johnson said they were very aware that a 59 was possible as they came down the stretch, and they took similar approaches to handling it.
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“I wouldn’t say those thoughts are negative at all,” Scheffler said. “You obviously put them in the back of your head when you’re hitting shots, but as far as thinking about (shooting 59), it’s not necessarily a negative because it encourages me to continue to make birdies.”
Johnson also wanted to attack the course and said that he was looking to make birdies on every hole, but a couple of wayward tee shots on the back nine prevented him from attacking a few flags.
If there is one shot he regrets, it is the tee shot on 18.
“I should have hit 3-wood off the tee there because I could have had 3-wood and 6-iron on the green,” Johnson said. “If I had to do over again, I’d hit a 3-wood there.”
Two rounds of 59 have never been fired on the same day at the same PGA Tour event. However, this is the second time there has been a 59 and a 60. In 2010, Paul Goydos shot 59 and Steve Stricker posted the 60 in the first round of the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run.
While plenty of low scores were posted at TPC Boston on Friday, several notable players struggled and missed the cut of 3 under (139). Jordan Spieth finished at 2 under, Tony Finau was 1 under, and Phil Mickelson, Patrick Cantlay, Gary Woodland and Bryson DeChambeau ended at even par. Collin Morikawa, the PGA Championship winner two weeks ago, struggled to a 1-over finish to miss his second career cut as a professional.
Scottie Scheffler was on fire Friday at TPC Boston.
PGA Tour players have been taking advantage of prime scoring conditions at TPC Boston in the first event of the FedEx Cup Playoffs, but while we’ve seen several 64s and 65s over the first two rounds, no player has dominated the course quite like 24-year-old American Scottie Scheffler.
Scheffler has been playing excellent golf late in the season, and is coming off a T4 finish at the PGA Championship. On Friday, Scheffler was flawless. After an opening round 70, Scheffler birdied five of his first seven holes to vault up the leaderboard, and made the turn at 6-under par for the round. At the 14th tee Scheffler was 8-under, and he went on to birdie holes 14, 15 and 16 consecutively. He missed the fairway on 17 and settled for a par, and came to the par-5 18th needing a birdie to post a score of 59. A solid approach shot short of the green and a pitch onto the surface left him with a five-footer to make history, and Scheffler drilled it. His 59 is just the 12th score under 60 in PGA Tour history, one shot behind Jim Furyk’s record 58.
Scottie Scheffler: 59 (-12); 12th sub-60 round in @PGATOUR history. Nine of them have come since 2010; six since 2016.
Unfortunately for Scheffler, the greatest round of his life wasn’t televised. Scheffler went out well before TV coverage began on Friday, and most of his round wasn’t covered by PGA Tour Live.
Scottie Scheffler needs a birdie on the par-5 18th to shoot a 59.
Scottie Scheffler posted the historic number on Friday at TPC Boston for the Northern Trust, rocketing up the leaderboard in the process.
Add another 59 to the PGA Tour record books. Scottie Scheffler logged the iconic number at TPC Boston on Friday in the second round of the Northern Trust.
Scheffler’s round of 12-under 59 came after an opening 1-under 70. He rocketed more than 70 spots up the leaderboard, into the solo lead at 13 under.
The former Texas player’s first birdie came at the par-5 second hole. He added birdies at Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 to turn in 30, then kept it going on the back with birdies at Nos. 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16. For the final birdie on No. 18, he faced just more than 4 feet. He drained it make history.
It’s the 12th sub-60 score in PGA Tour history. Kevin Chappell was the last player to accomplish the feat at The Greenbrier in 2019.
Four players yet to reach their 26th birthday, including Scottie Scheffler, all finished among the top 10 at the PGA Championship.
John Fields first laid eyes on him years ago during an amateur golf tournament hosted by Barton Creek Country Club in Austin, Texas, and couldn’t have been more impressed.
So the University of Texas men’s golf coach introduced himself to Scottie Scheffler and his Dallas parents, trying to get a leg up on recruiting the young talent.
He followed up on the visit by sending Scheffler a lengthy questionnaire, even asking if he’d narrowed his choice of colleges that he was considering.
“He wrote back,” Fields recalled. “He said, ‘Thank you for your nice note, but I really don’t know yet because I’m getting ready to go into the eighth grade.’ ”
Can never start too early these days. That’s never been more true than in golf.
Don’t look now, but there’s a youth movement that’s threatening to take over the sport, even at the PGA Tour level.
That became obvious last Sunday when 23-year-old rookie Collin Morikawa from Cal-Berkeley streaked to the PGA Championship, notching an eagle on the 70th hole and winning his first major by two shots in only his second start in a major. The half-Japanese, half-Chinese prodigy already has three titles to his name after just 29 starts on tour.
He’s hardly alone in attracting attention.
The young lions, including Scheffler — the Texas ex who’s a consistent, confident birdie machine — are banging on the door. Actually, they’ve already opened it and ushered themselves in.
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Morikawa’s win jumped him to No. 5 in the Official World Golf Ranking and No. 8 in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings. Five rookies have climbed to the top 36 in the rankings. Scheffler has reached 46th, ascending from 59th with his fourth-place tie in the PGA Championship.
“I think golf is in a great spot,” Scheffler said last Sunday night, after the tournament. “You’ve got a lot of young guys playing well. Yeah, I think golf is in a great place.”
Four players yet to reach their 26th birthday, including 24-year-old Scheffler, all finished among the top 10 at the PGA Championship, the most ever during the stroke-play era.
The other two — Oklahoma State’s Matthew Wolff and Texas A&M’s Cameron Champ — have already won on the PGA Tour. Scheffler has yet to win, but has five top-seven finishes. Playing in just his fourth major, he was in Sunday’s final pairing with former world No. 1 Dustin Johnson and never shrank from the moment.
And by the way, Si Woo Kim, who’s leading after Saturday’s third round of the Wyndham Championship, is also in that demographic — his 25th birthday less than two months in the rearview mirror.
Brooks Koepka, who was seeking his third straight PGA Championship, had said the day before that he didn’t know some of “the other guys” high up on the leaderboard and was mostly concerned with Johnson.
Koepka knows them all now, having ballooned to a final-round 74 to finish 10 strokes behind Morikawa.
The other guys are cropping up everywhere. From everywhere. Like Matthew Fitzpatrick from England. Like Sung-Jae Im and the aforementioned Kim from South Korea. Like 25-year-old Li Haotong from China, who became the first golfer from his country to ever lead after a round at a major when he did so at the halfway point.
Oh, and Arizona State’s Jon Rahm, the world’s No. 1 player, is from Spain. He’s 25.
Back home Americans like Justin Thomas (Alabama), Bryson DeChambeau (SMU) and Xander Schauffele (Long Beach) are all in their 20s. So is former Longhorn Jordan Spieth, who’s trying to recover his groove. The colleges are churning them out like crazy. Wolff won six times at Oklahoma State and won the 3M Open last year. Morikawa won the Barracuda Championship the next week.
Viktor Hovland, Wolff’s 22-year-old Oklahoma State teammate, has already won on the PGA Tour, claiming the Puerto Rico Open to become the first Norwegian to win on Tour. Native Texan Abraham Ancer played at Oklahoma. Stanford’s Maverick McNealy is a former No. 1 amateur in the world, just like Texas’ junior Cole Hammer.
Three prominent recent Texas golfers all have made waves in pro majors. Jordan Spieth, left, has won three majors; Beau Hossler, middle, tied for 29th in the 2012 U.S. Open while still a high schooler; and Scottie Scheffler just finished tied for fourth at the PGA Championship. (American-Statesman staff photos)
Hammer and Western Amateur champion Pierceson Coody were two of five Longhorns who qualified in this week’s U.S. Amateur competition in Oregon, but none played well enough to advance out of stroke play. They’re future PGA stars.
But the college kids and international players are making their presence felt for any number of reasons.
Credit terrific training from super college coaches like Fields.
Early exposure to golf. Sungjae Im began playing at age 3. Some get recruited in middle school.
Breakthroughs in equipment. Some of these drivers are bigger than Rhode Island.
More strength training. Rahm is a 6-3, 235-pound specimen.
“I think it’s just amateur golf right now. It’s so good,” Wolff said. “The best of amateur golf right now, they’re going to be the best players in the world. I think that was rare in the past.”
Morikawa, a four-time All-American, became only the fourth player to win a PGA Championship before he turned 24, joining Rory McIlroy, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
“It’s great company,” Morikawa said. “I feel very comfortable in this spot. This is where I want to be, and I’m not scared from it. It doesn’t stop here.”
No reason that it should. None of these young guns have any fear.
“When Scottie won the U.S. Junior championship before he came to UT, he just had a way about him that suggested he was OK being uncomfortable and still able to play good golf,” Fields said. “He is absolutely good enough to win a major championship.”
Paul Casey, the runner-up who still hasn’t won a major in 64 starts, came away impressed with Morikawa.
“Instant maturity was probably the one thing that stood out,” Casey said. “I mean, you know, those — you’ve heard him talk. Very mature in the words he chooses, the way he speaks, the way he plays golf.”
The same goes for Scheffler, who won three times as the Korn Ferry player of the year and led that tour in birdies. This was yet another stride in what should be a brilliant career.
“Definitely a step in the right direction,” Scheffler told me via an online press conference. “It was definitely a solid week out here. So good steppingstone going forward.”
The new wave may not inundate the game, but these youngsters are making their presence known.
“There’s always a bunch of guys that rock up on the scene, and Collin didn’t necessarily get the most publicity out of the group he was in, but you know, I’ve been around the block, so I know talent when I see it,” Casey said. “Talent’s — you know something good. We could just tell.”
So could Koepka, who finally conceded that point about Morikawa.
“He’s a really good player,” Koepka said. “He’s shown it over — has it been a year?”
