2021 Shriners Children's Open: Round 2 Matchups

Oct 07, 2021

4for4 Illustrations

The "birdie-fest" of a course at TPC Summerlin certainly lived up to its reputation during Thursday's first round of the Shriners Children's Open. The average score was over 2.6 strokes below par, as one golfer after another added to the red numbers on the scoreboard. By day's end, Sung Kang sat alone atop the leaderboard at 10-under par, shooting a career-best 61. Sitting two shots back at 8-under are Charley Hoffman, Sungjae Im and Chad Ramey. A whopping 59 players shot 4-under or better. Other notables include Matthew Wolff at 7-under, and Hideki Matsuyama and Louis Oosthuizen at 6-under par.

The weather tomorrow could definitely hamper the elite scoring conditions as winds are forecasted to be over 15 MPH all day, with gusts over 25 MPH. With scoring conditions so easy, and parsing through the top players on the leaderboard, there are three golfers who really had great rounds ball-striking I believe can make a run over the next three days. The odds for each one present great value. I consider the true leading score right now to be 8-under. Over the next few rounds, current leader, Sung Kang will fade like a flower in the Las Vegas desert. Thus, Mito Pereira (+5000) and Seamus Power (+10000) are both only a few shots back, and both gained over three strokes ball-striking today. Pereira looks as if he could win any week and Power has winning equity as he won the Barbasol just a couple of months ago. Viktor Hovland sits at 4-under and is still a very worthwhile bet at +3300 odds.