2021 Shriners Children’s Open: PGA Tour Betting Odds

Who can turn down a long weekend in Las Vegas? Not most professional golfers, and it’s a solid field this week in Sin City for the PGA Tour’s 2021 Shriners Children’s Open. Brooks Koepka is favoured to win on the golf odds.

Two notable items about this event: When it began in 1983 as the Las Vegas Pro Celebrity Classic, it had the highest purse on tour at $750,000 (US) and Tiger Woods got his first PGA Tour victory here in 1996. If that doesn’t make you feel old! The event also was five rounds for several years but has been the usual four since 2004.

TPC Summerlin, which is at about 2,700 feet above sea level, is a very easy par 71 at 7,255 yards – no one wants to play a tough course when in Las Vegas. Six golfers who played in the recent Ryder Cup committed to play ahead of last Friday’s deadline but three other big names, reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year Patrick Cantlay, Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa, opted not to play. DeChambeau won here in 2018 and Cantlay the year before – followed by runner-up finishes in 2018 & ’19. Eleven of the Top 25 in the world rankings are scheduled to play.

Last year, Martin Laird, Austin Cook and Matthew Wolff all finished 72 holes at 23-under 261 and Laird won it on the second hole of sudden death with a 23-foot birdie putt. He had blown a three-shot lead at the turn and missed a par putt to win in regulation. Laird, who was on a sponsor exemption, also just missed a 31-foot putt on the first playoff hole to win.

The Scotsman also won the 2009 tournament in a three-man playoff but lost in a three-man 2010 playoff. Laird, Kevin Na (2011 & ’19) and Jim Furyk (1995, ’98, ’99) are the only multiple-time winners of this event. Na is one of several Tour players who live in Las Vegas.

Shriners Childern’s Open Golf Betting Odds

Brooks Koepka (+1800), who was part of the Ryder Cup-winning Team USA, last played this event in 2019 and missed the cut. He was a runner-up by two shots to Aussie Rod Pampling in 2016.

Viktor Hovland and Sam Burns are each +2000. Burns was the betting favourite at last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship in Mississippi and won it, his second victory of the year. Burns’ best finish here is T20. Hovland makes his tournament debut.

Abraham Ancer and Scottie Scheffler are each +2200. Ancer was fourth in Vegas last year and in 2018. Scheffler missed the cut in 2020. Martin Laird is a +16000 long shot to repeat.

No Canadian has won this event. Other than Laird, it has been almost exclusively Americans and Australians. Last year, Adam Hadwin finished T4, three shots out of the playoff. Nick Taylor was T29, while Roger Sloan, Mackenzie Hughes and Graham DeLaet missed the cut. Corey Conners is +3500 this week as he plays the event for the first time since missing the cut in 2018. Hadwin is +11000, Sloan +16000, Taylor +25000 and Adam Svensson +30000.

Shriners Children’s Open Golf Predictions

Take Will Zalatoris and Matthew Wolff for Top 10s, but the winner at +2500 is Webb Simpson. He hasn’t been worse than T20 the past four years in Vegas and won in 2013.