The PGA Tour heads west to Las Vegas for its annual stop at TPC Summerlin, home of the Shriners Children’s Open. Located about 20 minutes west of the Las Vegas Strip at the base of the Red Rock Canyon, TPC Summerlin is a desert parkland course that plays at around 2,700 feet of elevation. Known as one of the easiest courses on Tour, players will have to bring a “scoring” mindset from the first tee on Thursday, not just to be in the mix come Sunday, but also just to make the cut.
Compared to last week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, the level of competition takes a huge jump with 12 of the top 50 players in the world heading to Vegas. Overall, there is a very balanced upper-tier headlined by Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa and Sungjae Im. Ranked fourth in the world, Cantlay is one of the stalwarts of this event as he won his first PGA Tour victory here in 2018 and has had three other top-8 finishes since. His Presidents Cup teammate, Max Homa, who went undefeated at Quail Hollow will also return to action.
As for Im, he returns to Summerlin to defend his title two weeks after his own quality performance in the Presidents Cup. Joining him in Las Vegas will be more than half of his Presidents Cup teammates in Cam Davis, Si Woo Kim, Tom Kim, K.H. Lee, Mito Pereira, Taylor Pendrith and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Five major champions are also included in the field along with more than a dozen players with connections to Las Vegas.
The Shriners Children’s Open has been a breakthrough event for many different players who earned their first Tour victory here including Tiger Woods. There will be 144 golfers in the field with 500 FedExCup points and a two-year PGA Tour exemption on the line. The cut line on Friday will include the top 65 and ties.
Course History
Las Vegas has hosted a PGA Tour event every year since 1983. Known by various titles, it was originally played over five rounds and on several different courses. The inaugural event in 1983 had the highest purse on Tour at $750,000. Then in 1991, architect Bobby Weed was asked to design a new course called TPC Summerlin with the help of player consultant, Fuzzy Zoeller.
Built as a Las Vegas desert oasis, the layout opened as the flagship amenity for the 22,500-acre Summerlin master planned community. Weed overcame many challenges in blending the golf course to the surrounding desert landscape. The Mojave Desert heat, along with the lack of water and soil created significant construction and operational challenges. Weed’s design team took significant steps to preserve natural wildlife habitats and native desert grasses.
Zoeller said the goals at Summerlin were simply “to give players clear targets from the tees, to allow them a chance to roll their approach shots onto the greens, and to keep the green undulations subtle.” The course was first played as an annual PGA Tour event in 1992 as the Las Vegas Invitational, In 1996, Tiger Woods won his first Tour victory there at the age of 20.
In 2018, all bunkers underwent strategic realignment, improved contouring, drainage, and new sand was installed. And then just this past April, the course was shut down until the event in October to allow for all fairways and greens to be re-grassed to newer improved varieties.
The Course
TPC Summerlin is a par-72, 7,255-yard layout that was carved from a spectacular swath of rugged desert terrain. The course meanders through desert arroyos and canyons and features all sorts of native bushes and cacti. The lush bentgrass greens, numerous bodies of water, and abundance of mesquite and pine trees provide a sharp visual contrast with the raw desert landscape.
TPC Summerlin is a considerably short desert parkland track that plays even less than its measured yardage due to 2,700 feet of elevation and typically firm fairways. Homes line the perimeter of the course and it features gentle elevation changes throughout with a good variety of downhill and uphill holes. The rocky desert areas are used as either forced carries off the tee or as hazards around the green complexes. There are 92 bunkers, which is the seventh most on Tour, along with only four holes with water danger.
f684b2f3d4218ee06dad551b3bb2074bSimilar to the past two weeks, GIR% is well above Tour average, and this venue also contains some of the widest fairways on Tour at over 34 feet on average. The bermuda rough is only two and a quarter inches and causes little trouble for players with wayward tee shots. The bentgrass greens are the sixth-largest on Tour and rank as one of the easiest putting surfaces. Looking back at the course history over the last five years, it is the sixth-easiest course on Tour at 1.98 strokes under par (not including the “wind” year of 2018).
As mentioned above, TPC Summerlin is the definition of a “birdie-fest”, and this is despite the fact there are only three Par 5s to score on. Two years ago, this event set the PGA record for the lowest cut-line in PGA Tour history at 7-under par. In fact, this course is so undemanding that over the past five years it ranks in the top-three easiest courses for Good Drive%, GIR% and BoB%. It is also the easiest course on Tour for BoB% from the rough and Birdie to Bogey ratio. It contains the lowest-scoring Par 4s on Tour as well as the furthest average Driving Distance.
It is important to note that weather can be a huge factor at TPC Summerlin due to the location of the mountains. Back in 2018, Patrick Cantlay overcame winds gusting over 20 MPH to win at an outlier score of only 9-under. Looking at the forecast for this week, weather conditions appear to be close to perfect.
Each of the par-5s is typically reachable in two shots. Thanks to the course’s elevation, that also includes the 606-yard 13th hole. The par-3s are a good mix of lengths measuring from 168 yards to 239 yards. Six of the 11 par-4s are between 420-450 yards and rank among the easiest group of par-4s on Tour.
While it lacks compelling architecture, as is the case with most TPC layouts, the final four holes are the highlight of the course and present an exciting closing stretch. The 15th features a driveable par-4 that can play anywhere from 300-341 yards. Hole 16 is a risk/reward par-5 that is reachable in two shots while the 17th is a dangerous par-3 that has water on two sides. The final hole is a strong par-4 that sits at 444 yards. Overall, there is a ton of swing potential for scoring in this stretch as birdies, eagles, and bogeys or worse are all possible.
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
Similar to the first two events of the 2023 season, with the second-highest average Driving Distance on Tour, we can expect to see players unleash their driver at TPC Summerlin. Like at those courses, there is not much danger off the tee. Many of the bunkers and waste areas can easily be cleared by the bigger hitters, and the shorter hitters have wide fairways on which to aim.
Yet while the average Driving Distance is 299.1 yards, you don’t have to be a “bomber” to win here. Keep in mind that when factoring in the thin Las Vegas desert air, even shorter players gain around 10 yards off the tee here. We have actually seen a majority of shorter hitters win this event over the years with the likes of Kevin Na (twice), Webb Simpson, Ben Martin, Martin Laird, and Jonathan Byrd. Even Bryson DeChambeau won here before he muscled up when he was just an average-length player off the tee.
The rough at TPC Summerlin is non-penal as evidenced by a 60.7% Greens in Regulation (GIR) rate and a 20.4% Birdie or Better rate (both much higher than Tour average). On a course where birdies are essential, it is still a huge advantage to be hitting approach shots from the fairways. Patrick Cantlay remarked how playing from the fairways allows better spin control out of the unpredictable bermuda rough. Many of the hole locations are usually tucked in the corners of the greens and are much more accessible from the fairway.
Approach
With the fifth-largest greens on Tour, it is no surprise that Summerlin has one of the highest GIR rates anywhere. And thanks to the simplistic greens that lack any type of nuance, it is the 13th easiest course on which to gain strokes on approach. With eight of the par-4s checking in at under 450 yards, combined with the average players’ length off the tee, a wedge-fest will be in full effect. Over the last three events here, 34.2% of approach shots have come from the 100-150 yard range which is 7% higher than average.
Around the Green and Putting
Even though a higher-than-average majority of approach shots hit these greens in regulation, if there is one area of TPC Summerlin that puts up some resistance it would be around the greens (ARG). Over the past few years it ranks as the third-toughest track to gain strokes ARG, including the second-toughest from the fairway and the eighth-toughest from the bunkers.
On the greens, TPC Summerlin is one of the easiest courses on Tour. Because of the lack of undulations combined with the pure bentgrass surface that is on the slower side, it is the seventh-easiest course on which to gain strokes putting. Because of the huge greens, the one putting metric that should not be ignored is three-putt avoidance. With this turning into a birdie-fest along with most of the recent winners here being quality putters, catching fire with the flat stick is essential for raising the trophy come Sunday. Three years ago, Kevin Na was a perfect example of this as he made over 558 feet of putts on his way to gaining 14.2 strokes on the greens.
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