LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 24: Tiger Woods plays a shot during the Pro-Am Tournament for The Match: ... [+]
The second week of the PGA Tour’s Vegas swing is underway, with two new aspects. First, the CJ Cup is being held at the Tom Fazio-designed, MGM-owned Shadow Creek Resort after being relocated from South Korea due to a 14-day mandatory pandemic quarantine. Second, the PGA Tour has integrated real-time betting odds for the first time, courtesy of BetMGM.
Xander Shauffele (+1200 opening line according to Bovada) shot a course-record 64 in the second round to lead Englishman Tyrell Hatton (+2800) by three shots. Hatton, after winning in a hoodie in Europe the week before, shot a stellar 65 in the first round. Last week Scotsman Martin Laird won the Shriners Hospital for Children’s Open at nearby TPC Summerlin in a playoff.
“There will be two executions of updates per hour during all four rounds of the event,” according to the PGA Tour and ESPN, “featuring leaderboards with integrated open and current odds to win, as well as odds of head-to-head matchups, top finishes, winning margin and other golf props.” BetMGM signed the deal in August 2020, after the Supreme Court’s 2018 repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA).
This weekend also presents a rare opportunity for golf fans to watch the world’s best players on one of the world’s most exclusive and rarely seen golf courses. Shadow Creek has never hosted a PGA event before, and while the pandemic precautions will keep fans off property, the TV coverage will bring it to viewers everywhere.
The view from the 9th tee at Shadow Creek Golf Course, the Steve Wynn and Tom Fazio-designed ... [+]
"If they blindfolded you, flew you and then dropped you in the middle of Shadow Creek,” says Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz, “you'd feel like you're in a picture." Smoltz knows golf: he’s good enough to have qualified for the 2018 US Senior Open.
In its first big public debut in 2018, Shadow Creek hosted The Match over Thanksgiving weekend, where Phil Mickelson defeated Tiger Woods for $9 million . Shadow Creek also hosts the Tiger Jam Invitational fundraiser for the Tiger Woods Foundation, usually in May, but postponed this year due to the pandemic.
This week, the CJ Cup is limited to a 78-player field competing for a $9.75 million purse. It includes top Korean players as well as many top pros from the PGA and European Tours. Major winner Justin Thomas (+1100) is the defending champion and also won the first CJ Cup in 2017. Four-time major champ Brooks Koepka (+2800) won in 2018 but is coming off an injury layoff. Spaniard Jon Rahm (+850) entered as the favorite. Other major winners teeing it up include four-time champ Rory McIlroy (+1200), three-time winner Jordan Spieth, and two-time Masters champ Bubba Watson along with Sergio Garcia, Gary Woodland (+5000), Collin Morikawa (+2200), Shane Lowry, Louis Oosthuizen, Jason Day, Bradley Keegan, and Justin Rose.
After two rounds, Morikawa and Thomas joined Shauffele and Hatton as favorites in the top ten. Rahm lurks at -4, ten shots back.
Neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson, preparing for The Masters, are competing. Neither is world #1 Dustin Johnson, a US Open champion who won the 2020 FedEx Cup. Johnson withdrew on Tuesday after testing positive for COVID-19.
Golf Digest ranks Shadow Creek #26 on America’s Greatest Golf Courses and #5 in public courses. But it was not always public. In the late 1980s, Wynn hired Fazio to design a course inspired by Augusta National, New Jersey’s exclusive Pine Valley, and Sherwood Country Club in Los Angeles.
Aerial view of Shadow Creek Golf Course in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
“There have been many wonderful golf courses created in the last several decades,” Fazio said, “and I honestly believe Shadow Creek is in a separate category.” Here is why. For $45-$60 million, according to differing estimates, Fazio moved 400,000 cubic yards of earth to transform a featureless expanse of flat desert into a secluded oasis. He added rolling hills covered by about 20,000 trees of over 200 varieties, a mile-long creek, and a 35-foot high, 100-foot wide waterfall. Wynn, an animal-lover, imported wallabies, pheasants, and African cranes.
Completed in 1989, Shadow Creek originally opened only to Wynn VIPs - gambling whales, celebrities, and politicians. But when Wynn made his big sale to Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM Resorts in 2000, the new owners opened it to the public.
18th hole at Shadow Creek Golf Course in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
It plays par 72, 7560 yards from the tips, lengthened by about 300 yards during a 2008 redesign. Keep in mind Shadow Creek sits at about 2000 feet elevation, so the ball travels farther here than near sea level, especially in hot weather.
It will cost you $750 per round, including a mandatory limo ride from an MGM Resort you must stay at to play. Add to that a mandatory caddy, and the triple-zero tab keeps out the riff-raff - and anyone averse to blowing huge sums of money on the world’s most frustrating game. So does the limited number of tee times each day.
“I’ve played it over 100 times,” says NBA legend Michael Jordan, “but I can’t say I mastered it.”
