Shriners Children’s Open Predictions 2022: 3 Picks

The PGA Tour will be in Las Vegas for the Shriners Children’s Open this week, which has a purse of $8 million.

The field is the best of the three tournaments this season, which is great for golf betting. Of the 24 Presidents Cup players, 11 will be in the field this week, and 11 of the top 50 players in the World Golf Rankings.

But when it comes to selecting players to bet on, I will be looking elsewhere.

TPC Summerlin will yield a ton of birdies. In each of the last four years of the tournament, the winning score has been 20-under or better. Past history has shown when this occurs, more often than not, some lesser-known players rise to the top of the leaderboard.

For this week, I will be targeting some recent Korn Ferry Tour graduates now playing on the PGA Tour. These players are used to playing easier courses where birdies are needed to contend.

Shriners Children’s Open Predictions 2022: 3 Picks

• Taylor Montgomery Win Outright +3300 (1 Unit)
• Matt Kuchar Top-10 Finish +500 (1 Unit)
• Kurt Kitayama Top-20 Finish +300 (1 Unit)

Taylor Montgomery’s rookie season is off to a great start. The recent Korn Ferry Tour graduate has finished in the top 10 in the two events this season (third at Fortinet Championship, T-9 at Sanderson Farms Championship).

Not only does he enter in good form, but it’s also a home game. The 27-year-old was born in Las Vegas and went to college at UNLV. At +3300, Montgomery feels worth an outright pick.

While Matt Kuchar had a relatively quiet season a year ago (three top-10 finishes), two of those came at courses similar in layout to TPC Summerlin. He finished inside the top 10 at the Sony Open (Waialae Golf Course) and RBC Heritage (Harbour Town Golf Links).

In addition, Kuchar enters the week following a T-12 finish at the Fortinet Championship, where he gained seven strokes tee-to-green. So it would not be surprising to see him log another top-10 finish this week.

Lastly, Kitayama is another player who lives in Vegas and should feel comfortable this week. 

This will be the 29-year-old’s season debut, but his last event of 2021-22 was a T-19 at the BMW Championship. Getting the No. 56-ranked player in the world at this number to finish inside the top 20 is too good to pass up.

Season Record: 1-5, -3.5 units (Last week: 1-2, -.5 units)