Shriners Children's Open 2024 Preview, Picks & Analysis

Tom Kim returns to TPC Summerlin to defend his Shriners Children’s Open title, hoping to put what has been a pretty disappointing season behind him.

Apart from the Presidents Cup, at which he was outstanding, Kim has had a pretty mixed year but he remains one of the most exciting talents on the PGA Tour.

He is a golfer who wears his heart on his sleeve and is always great value for money.

He will be going for a very rare third successive title here.

In 2023, a year after winning the tournament for the first time, Kim returned to the site of his second PGA Tour victory and took the title yet again. With rounds of 62 and 66 over the weekend, the 21-year-old held off Adam Hadwin by a stroke to become just the second ever to win the event in back-to-back seasons. 

It was his third victory and he was thrilled.

"No. 3 sounds a lot better than No. 2, I’m not going to lie to you," Kim said. "I feel like after 2022, coming off such a great run and then kind of not feeling exactly myself mid-year - it’s been a grind trying to figure it out."

Kim burst onto the scene in the summer of 2022 when he won the Wydham Championship and followed it up with a stunning debut at the Presidents Cup but after a successful autumn topped by winning at TPC Summerlin, he struggled to continue the momentum into 2023 as he registered just three top 10s in the first six months of the year. 

He began to find his form as the season unfolded with top-10 finishes in the US Open and Open Championship. But the next win still eluded him. In Las Vegas, that all changed.

"Obviously, it was my first full season and [I was] trying to live up to the expectations of a great year last year," Kim said. "It’s been tough, but it’s been great sometimes, it’s been humbling. No. 3 is just so sweet."

Kim, who was born in South Korea but spent much of his early life in Australia, is still only 22. He turned professional in May 2018, playing on the Philippines Tour. In 2019 he initially played mostly on the Asian Development Tour and in March he had two fourth-place finishes in Malaysia and then two runner-up finishes in Thailand before winning his first event, the PGM ADT Championship, in Malaysia in late June, six strokes ahead of the field.

He won the Ciputra Golfpreneur Tournament in Indonesia in August, after a playoff, and the Raya Pakistan Open by nine shots in October. His third win gave him automatic promotion to the Asian Tour for the rest of 2019. In November, he won the Panasonic Open at the age of 17 years and 149 days.

In early 2020, he finished fourth in the Singapore Open. The event was part of the Open Qualifying Series and his high finish gave him an entry into the 2020 Open.

Kim won the 2022 Singapore International and the following week was runner-up at the Singapore Open seeing him finish as the leading money winner on the Asian Tour. In July, he finished solo-third at the Scottish Open. With a tied 47th place at The Open he became eligible for Special Temporary Membership on the PGA Tour for the remainder of the 2021-22 season. He earned his PGA Tour card for 2022-23 with seventh place at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. The following week, he shot a final-round 61 to win the Wyndham - this after starting the tournament with a quadruple-bogey eight.

When he won the Shriners in October 2022 he became the first player to win twice on tour before the age of 21 since Tiger Woods in 1996.

Most of the tour’s leading lights have opted to take another week off, and that provides a golden opportunity for a number of players to secure some much-needed FedEx points as the season starts to wind down.

The Course:

Designed by renowned golf course architect Bobby Weed and Fuzzy Zoeller, TPC Summerlin  is a par-72 measuring 7,243 yards. Carved out of the Nevada desert, it features canyons, water hazards, generous fairways and large greens.

Tournament Winners:

It was won in 2015 by Smylie Kaufman, in 2016 by Rod Pampling, in 2017 by Patrick Cantlay, in 2018 by Bryson DeChambeau, in 2019 by Kevin Na, in 2020 by Martin Laird, in 2021 by Sungjae Im and in 2022 and 2023 by Tom Kim.

Form Guide:

It is difficult to see beyond Tom Kim, who is going for a third win on the bounce on the back of some brilliant golf at the Presidents Cup.

Prize Money:

The total prize fund is $8.1m, with $1.5m going to the winner, who will also pick up 500 FedEx points.

How to Watch:

Thursday, October, 17 Sky Sports Golf, 10.30pm

Friday, October 18,  Sky Sports Golf, 10pm

Saturday, October 19,  Sky Sports Golf, 10pm

Sunday, October 20 Sky Sports Golf, 10pm

To Win:

Tom Kim. Adores this place

Each Way:

Eric Cole. Mr Consistency

Each Way:

Rickie Fowler. Still struggling but it’s in there somewhere

Five to Follow:

Tom Kim. Would love a third win on the bounce

Eric Cole. Beautiful swing

Rickie Fowler. Mercurial talent

Daniel Berger. Showing signs of recovery

Patton Kizzire. Full of confidence

Five Outsiders to Watch:

Taylor Montgomery. Has gone off the boil

Martin Laird. Needs a top 10

David Skinns. Has proved he can go low

Sami Valimaki. In need of a big week

Ryan Fox. Still finding his feet in America