Featured Groups: Shriners Hospitals for Children Open

Risk/reward is always the name of the game in Las Vegas, and it’s no different at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin. The Bobby Weed/Fuzzy Zoeller design in the desert features a driveable, par-4 15th and a par-5 16th that may be the last, best birdie opportunities. Rod Pampling made four birdies in his last six holes to become the surprise winner last year, picking up his first PGA TOUR title since the 2006 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by MasterCard. The Shriners has seen 10 first-time TOUR winners in the last 15 years, plus champions with Vegas ties such as Kevin Na (2011) and Ryan Moore (’12). The winner gets 500 FedExCup points. Among the other headliners: Newly minted Web.com Tour graduate Chesson Hadley, who has gotten off to a great start this season and sits at sixth in the FedExCup; Ryan Armour, 41, who is coming off his emotional maiden victory at the Sanderson Farms Championship and is ninth; and FedExCup No. 5 Tony Finau, who is close to home (Utah) but must adapt to the 15-hour difference between the Shriners and the World Golf Championships-HSBC Champions (Shanghai, China). Maverick McNealy will tee it up on a sponsor exemption. Former UNLV golfer Charley Hoffman will be playing for a cause greater than himself, donating his winnings to survivors of the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival shooting. His Presidents Cup teammate Kevin Chappell is also in the field. And keep an eye on Patrick Cantlay, one of the big movers last season after playing his way from injury and career jeopardy all the way to the TOUR Championship. MORE SHRINERS: Field | Tee times | Power Rankings | Course | Past Results Here’s a look at this week’s featured groups (current FedExCup ranking in parentheses). All times ET: Webb Simpson (T-81), Smylie Kaufman (51), Rod Pampling (146): Three past champions, plenty of good mojo. Four years after his Vegas victory, Simpson is enjoying a career resurgence and one of six players in the field who made it all the way to last season’s TOUR Championship. He eventually finished 17th in the FedExCup. Kaufman, who won the Shriners two years ago, had an off year in 2017 but is trending upward after a tie for fourth at the Sanderson Farms. And Pampling is looking to recapture the magic that made him one of the biggest surprises of the last season when he won for the first time anywhere since the 2008 Australian Masters. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 3:25 p.m. 1st tee; Rd. 1 – 10:35 a.m. 10th tee. Bubba Watson (N/A), Graeme McDowell (T-156), Jimmy Walker (N/A): Three major champions who are coming off a down year hope to get the early jump on the 2017-’18 with a solid performance in the desert. Two-time Masters champion Watson will be playing Shriners event for first time since 2007, while Walker, who broke through with a life-changing win at the 2016 PGA Championship, hopes to bounce back from a lull triggered by his bout with Lyme Disease. Meanwhile, 2010 U.S. Open champion McDowell, 38, will perhaps find inspiration in the fact that he is coming up on another Ryder Cup year.   Tee times: Rd. 1 – 3:35 p.m. 1st tee; Rd. 1 – 10:45 a.m. 10th tee. Ryan Armour (9), Bryson DeChambeau (T-81), Billy Horschel (N/A_: Two of last season’s winners plus late-bloomer Armour, 41, who won by five at last week’s Sanderson Farms Championship in just the fifth tournament of the new season. Mad scientist DeChambeau is coming off a life-changing summer in which he won the John Deere Classic to punch his last-minute ticket to the Open Championship, while 2014 FedExCup champion Horschel got back in the game with a playoff victory over Jason Day at the AT&T Byron Nelson. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 10:35 a.m. 10th tee; Rd. 2 – 3:25 p.m. 1st tee. Charley Hoffman (N/A), Ryan Moore (T-81), Kevin Chappell (N/A): Hoffman, who attended UNLV, is coming off the best season of his career, a campaign that saw him finish 20th in the FedExCup and make his first Presidents Cup team at age 40. This week he is paired with fellow UNLV alumnus Moore and Presidents Cup partner Chappell. Hoffman and Chappell paired up for one win and one loss in the U.S. Team’s easy victory over the Internationals. Hoffman will donate 100 percent of his earnings to PGA TOUR Charities, which will donate the entirety to the Direct Impact Fund in support of those affected by the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival shooting. Tee times: Rd. 1 – 10:45 a.m. 10th tee; Rd. 2 – 3:35 p.m. 1st tee.

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