Live Bets: Wild wind forecast leaves bettors with big choices for Shriners Children's Open

A wild wind forecast in Las Vegas leaves live betting options at the Shriners Children’s Open at the mercy of the weather as we head toward the second round.

The Thursday morning wave, who will not return until the afternoon on Friday at TPC Summerlin, certainly had the calmer conditions in the opening round and were paced by Canadian Taylor Pendrith and his sublime 10-under 61.

He was three shots clear of others in his wave, with Bud Cauley, Ben Silverman, Rico Hoey, J.T. Poston, Harry Hall, Matti Schmid and Mark Hubbard all getting into the house at 7-under 64. The scoring average for the entire wave was a solid 67.62

The late wave on the other hand was paced by Joseph Bramlett and Doug Ghim who each had 64s. Both players are Las Vegas residents so had the advantage of course and condition familiarity. But they were outliers. The entire wave average was 69.82, over two shots worse, although a handful of players failed to finish before dark.

But while the late players dealt with some tough conditions from the South/Southwest of around 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph, that’s nothing compared to what is forecast for the morning coming from the North/Northwest.

The wind flip is due in the middle of the Vegas night while most of the visitors in the city are coming out of bars, shows or leaving the gaming tables. By the time the morning tee times start it is forecast at 30 mph with higher gusts and could hit 40 mph gale-force at 10 a.m. with gusts heading to 50 mph before slowly dropping back to between 30 and 20 mph during the afternoon times.

While both waves should feel the winds, those coming back out early could be in full survival mode. As such, we need to be careful when considering players coming back out early tomorrow as live betting options at this stage.

Here are the current odds split into waves and below are my betting thoughts with the forecast in mind.

Early/late wave

• +300: Taylor Pendrith (-10, 1st)
• +1600: J.T. Poston (-7, T2)
• +1600: Harry Hall (-7, T2)
• +1600: Matti Schmid (-7, T2)
• +2500: Mark Hubbard (-7, T2)
• +2500: Ben Silverman (-7, T2)
• +2500: Rico Hoey (-7, T2)
• +2800: Bud Cauley (-7, T2)

Late/early wave

• +1800: Doug Ghim (-7, T2)
• +2500: J.J. Spaun (-6, T11)
• +2800: Joseph Bramlett (-7 T2)
• +3000: Kurt Kitayama (-5, T22)

For me, as great as the efforts from the likes of Bramlett and Ghim were, it’s hard to jump on them ahead of what they are set to face. They become a yellow light special so to speak. You have to wait and see.

Bramlett produced his best round of the season to open here and expecting him to continue it in a gale is asking a lot. At 91st in SG: Approach this season a regression from his 18th on Thursday could come in the tough gusts.

Ghim is a little more enticing having made his last five cuts and with the stability of ranking 23rd on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Total, 11th in SG: Tee-to-Green and sixth in SG: Approach. But I still can’t advise a live bet as he heads into the teeth of the wind. Instead, it’s a wait-and-see where he stands post-Round 2. He will be on my radar for the weekend if he can survive Friday.

Waiting out the entire round might be the pertinent move but if you want to take a plunge with 54 holes to play stick to those due to come out late.

Harry Hall is a former UNLV student who trends good results at Summerlin and who I liked pre-tournament but there is definitely some concern with his -1.489 strokes lost in SG: Off the Tee. He ranks near the bottom of the 132-man field (118th) forcing him to rely perhaps TOO heavily on his strength of putting (fifth on Thursday).

Matti Schmid is coming off a fifth-place finish last week at the Black Desert Championship in a similar elevation and his final round in Utah was a silky 62. That seems like momentum to me especially given a decent T16 at the Sanderson Farms Championship before that and a run of seven made cuts.

At the end of the day be wary of the winds and perhaps hold back your power plays until after the cut is made. As the winds lower on the weekend the chance for a big comeback will certainly become a possibility for many players.