The First Look: Shriners Children’s Open

Tom Kim is set to defend a PGA TOUR title for the first time.

Although he captured the Wyndham Championship last year, he was unable to tee it up in North Carolina after suffering a sprained ankle at The Open Championship.

“I am very gutted to not be able to defend my first PGA TOUR win,” Kim said in a statement at the time of his WD. “I am still having a hard time with my ankle, so I am getting the treatment I need to heal completely.”

Kim suffered a grade 1 ankle sprain after the first round of The Open Championship at Hoylake, but he returned Friday and went on to finish tied for second.

Kim returned to action for the FedExCup Playoffs, finishing T24-T10-T20 at the trio of Playoffs events.

And now, with a nice break after the TOUR Championship, he’ll finally have a chance to defend a title when he tees it up in Las Vegas at the Shriners Children’s Open.

Kim, whose 24-under 260 a year ago tied the tournament scoring record at TPC Summerlin, was a sparkplug for the International Team at last fall’s Presidents Cup. He would go on to record eight top-10 finishes in the 2022-23 season including two at majors.

And now he gets to return to where it all began.

FIELD NOTES: Tom Kim is one of five TOUR Championship qualifiers who will compete in Las Vegas. … The others are Nick Taylor, Si Woo Kim, Adam Schenk and Emiliano Grillo. … Si Woo Kim tees it up in Las Vegas after winning gold at the Asian Games alongside past Shriners winner Sungjae Im. The pair – alongside two amateurs – captured the team gold by 25 strokes over Thailand. … Ludvig Åberg is back in action on TOUR as he looks to climb the FedExCup standings. … Fellow Swede Vincent Norrman, who won the Irish Open on the DP World Tour the week after Åberg won the Omega European Masters, is back on TOUR for the first time since the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Norrman won this summer’s Barbasol Championship in a playoff. … Matt NeSmith, who finished tied for second a year ago, is back in action looking for the same magic to return. … More notables set to compete in Vegas include Akshay Bhatia, Webb Simpson, Eric Cole and Joel Dahmen.

SPONSOR EXEMPTIONS: Lexi Thompson will become the seventh woman to tee it up on the PGA TOUR. Thompson, an 11-time LPGA winner, went 3-1-0 for the United States at the recent Solheim Cup. Her brothers, Nicholas and Curtis Thompson, have both held PGA TOUR status. She is the first woman to tee it up on TOUR since Brittany Lincicome in 2018 at the Barbasol Championship. While TPC Summerlin will play to 7,255 yards, Thompson is one of the longest drivers on the LPGA at more than 270 yards a pop. The 28-year-old is a major winner and burst onto the scene as a youngster, first qualifying for the U.S. Women’s Open as a 12-year-old. … Nicolai Højgaard is back in action on the PGA TOUR after being part of the victorious European Ryder Cup team. Højgaard, who was one of Luke Donald’s captain’s picks, has two top-10 finishes on the PGA TOUR in 2023 including a runner-up at the Corales Puntacana Championship. … Recent University of Florida graduate Yuxin Lin will make his non-major PGA TOUR debut. Lin won the Asia-Pacific Amateur in 2017 and 2019. He won the Southern Highlands Collegiate – also in Las Vegas – in February. He began his collegiate career at the University of Southern California before transferring to Florida as a sophomore. Lin was originally set to tee it up at the Fortinet Championship before withdrawing to play in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. … TOUR winners Charley Hoffman and Tommy Gainey will tee it up on sponsor exemptions. … Peter Kuest, who was tied for 10th through 36 holes at the Sanderson Farms Championship, is set to join the field in Vegas. Kuest finished tied for fourth at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and then earned Special Temporary Membership on the PGA TOUR with a T17 at the following week’s John Deere Classic.

STORYLINES:

1) LEXI FOR THE LADIES

Lexi Thompson is no stranger to teeing it up alongside the men, as she’s played the now-Grant Thornton Invitational team event six times.

“I’ve grown up just playing with the guys, whether it’s my brothers or their friends and they’re older and hit it so far,” Thompson said. “I grew up around them, so I kind of know what to expect.”

Other women who have recently competed on the PGA TOUR include Annika Sorenstam (2003 Charles Schwab Challenge) and Michelle Wie West (2004 Sony Open in Hawaii at age 14).

The only female to make a cut at a PGA TOUR event was Babe Zaharias in 1945.

“This is kind of a once-in-a-career opportunity,” Thompson said, “so it was like, ‘I have to do this.’”

2) ÅBERG IN ACTION AGAIN

Ludvig Åberg, who was part of Europe’s winning Ryder Cup team, teed it up at the Sanderson Farms Championship – where he was tied for 16th through 36 holes – immediately after the Ryder Cup celebrations. The Shriners will be his second straight TOUR start as he looks to qualify for The Sentry (with a victory) or the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational (via The Next 10 from the final FedExCup Fall standings). Åberg, who is exempt through 2024 on account of topping the 2023 PGA TOUR University Ranking, still has plenty to play for over the next few weeks.

3) FEDEXCUP FALL

The Shriners is the third of seven events on the FedExCup Fall schedule, which means players are jockeying for key spots in the FedExCup standings over the coming weeks. Keep an eye out on Nos. 51-60 (behind the top 50 who qualified for the BMW Championship and cannot be bumped), as they will earn their way into two Signature Events to start 2024 – the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational – via The Next 10 from the final FedExCup Fall standings. Additionally, the top 125 on the FedExCup standings at the conclusion of The RSM Classic will retain their full TOUR status for 2024. It’s an important time as any on the TOUR schedule, and good play at this time of the year is massive.

FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points.

COURSE: TPC Summerlin, par 71, 7,255 yards. TPC Summerlin boasts raw landscape features and meanders through canyons and arroyos. While scoring is a premium, the venue will once again challenge the TOUR’s best with numerous water features and lush bentgrass greens. Tom Kim, last year’s winner, picked apart the Bobby Weed design (with Fuzzy Zoeller as player consultant) with tight ball-striking and a deft putting touch – he was third in both Strokes Gained: Putting and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green for the week.

72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Ryan Moore (2012), Webb Simpson (2013), Sungjae Im (2021), Tom Kim (2022)

18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Chip Beck (Round 3, 1991 at Sunrise GC); TPC Summerlin record: 60, J.J. Henry (Round 1, 2013), Rod Pampling (Round 1, 2016), Patrick Cantlay (Round 3, 2022)

LAST TIME: Tom Kim captured the Shriners Children’s Open by three shots, becoming the first player since Tiger Woods in 1996 to win twice on the PGA TOUR before turning 21. Kim’s 24-under 260 tied the tournament scoring record, but the win came with some help from Patrick Cantlay, who finished tied for second. Cantlay and Kim were tied on the tee of the 72nd hole before Cantlay hooked his tee shot into a desert bush in a ravine en route to a triple bogey. Kim was quick to admit Cantlay’s final-hole blunder helped him to win in Las Vegas, but the young star still went bogey-free for the week – becoming the first player since J.T. Poston at the 2019 Wyndham Championship to win on TOUR going bogey-free. He shot a 5-under 66 to close out the week. Cantlay finished tied for second with Matt NeSmith and was in prime position Sunday thanks to a third-round 60, which tied the TPC Summerlin scoring record.

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