The Shriners Children's Open is played at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. This spectacular desert course has become synonymous with low scores and dramatic finishes on the PGA Tour. This article won't just tell you the name of the course, it dives into its layout, its strategic challenges, and the coaching lessons you can take from how the pros play it to improve your own game.
Tournament Players Club (TPC) Summerlin is a private golf club located just a few miles from the vibrant Las Vegas Strip, but it feels like a different world. Nestled within the master-planned community of Summerlin, the course is carved into the arid desert landscape, framed by canyons and offering stunning views of the city skyline and the Red Rock mountain ranges.
Opened in 1991, TPC Summerlin was designed by the acclaimed golf course architect Bobby Weed, with veteran tour pro and Masters champion Fuzzy Zoeller serving as a player consultant. Weed's design philosophy shines through: create a course that's challenging for the best players in the world but enjoyable for the members. It’s a beautiful juxtaposition of rugged desert terrain with lush, perfectly manicured bentgrass fairways, tees, and greens. While technically a "desert course," it has the feel of a classic parkland layout once you're inside the ropes.
One of the quiet factors that significantly influences play is the altitude. At around 2,700 feet above sea level, the air is thinner, meaning the golf ball travels about 5% to 8% further than it would at sea level. For a tour pro whose yardages are dialed in to the foot, this is a major calculation on every single shot, especially approach shots into the firm, fast greens.
While TPC Summerlin is now the sole host, the Shriners Open - previously known under names like the Las Vegas Invitational - has a history of using a multi-course rotisserie. For much of its life, the tournament was a five-round pro-am event where players would cycle through a few different Las Vegas courses for the first few days before a cut was made for the weekend's final rounds.
In addition to TPC Summerlin, past rotations included courses like TPC at The Canyons (now TPC Las Vegas) and the storied Las Vegas Country Club. This multi-course format was unique on the PGA Tour schedule. However, in 2008, the tournament switched to a more traditional 72-hole, single-course format to align with other tour events, and TPC Summerlin became the exclusive home. This move allowed the course to become the star of the show, letting players get comfortable with its nuances over the tournament week and resulting in the birdie-fests we see today.
Walk through any pro-am in the Shriners Open, and you’ll hear amateurs marvel at how the pros make this course look easy. Scores of 20-under-par or better are common. This isn't just because the players are good, it's because the course design invites confident, aggressive play. Let's look at the strategy from a golf coach's perspective.
The front nine at TPC Summerlin is often described as a "gentle handshake." Tour pros know they need to make up ground here. With inviting fairways and gettable par-5s, the goal is to be at least three or four-under-par at the turn. Holes like the par-5 9th are must-birdies for the field. Players who get off to a slow start on this stretch often feel like they're playing catch-up for the rest of the day.
The tournament is often won or lost on a thrilling set of holes on the back nine now famously dubbed the "Bear's Claw," a nod to the course's challenging and dramatic finishing stretch. Let’s break it down:
This is strategy a nutshell. Measuring around 340 yards, it's easily reachable for tour players. A well-struck driver can lead to an eagle putt. But the green is small, well-bunkered, and any miss leaves an incredibly difficult chip. The safer play is a simple long iron or hybrid, leaving a wedge for a great look at birdie. The decision here on Sunday can swing the entire tournament.
After the tempting 14th comes the brutal 15th. This long par-4 often plays as one of the hardest holes on the course. A large lake guards the entire left side of the fairway and wraps around the front and left of the green. The bailout area is to the right, but that side is lined with deep bunkers. You can't fake it here. A par on 15 feels like a birdie and is a huge momentum-keeper.
And then comes the release. The 16th is a wide-open, downhill par-5 that is a green light for every player in the field. This hole yields more eagles than almost any other par-5 on the PGA Tour. A good drive leaves a mid-to-long iron into a receptive green. You have to make birdie here at a minimum, and players feel like they're giving a shot back to the field if they don't.
Like all great finishing stretches, this par-3 over water provides one last moment of potential drama. It's a short-to-mid iron to a large green, but with a Sunday pin tucked over the water and swirling canyon winds, club selection is everything. A fat shot is wet, and a thin shot finds the back bunker, leading to a nervy sand shot with the water directly beyond the pin.
Watching the pros pick apart a course like TPC Summerlin can teach us a lot about smart golf. The strategies are not complex - they're just executed well.
Every decision a pro makes at TPC Summerlin is based on a bigger plan. On the front nine, the plan is to be aggressive. On a hole like the 15th, the plan is to play defensively. You can apply this at your own club. Before you tee off, have a simple plan: on these five holes, I'll be aggressive. On these five, I will play for the middle of the fairway and green. Having this simple framework prevents you from making emotional decisions after one bad shot.
On the par-5 16th, an amateur probably doesn't have the fire-power to reach it in two. The coaching advice here is not just to "lay up," but to lay up to a specific yardage. If you are most confident with your 80-yard wedge shot, then your second shot should be calculated to leave you exactly 80 yards from the green. This turns a long, intimidating hole into two comfortable shots followed by an approach with your favorite club in hand. Stop hitting your second shot as far as you can and start planning your third shot first.
The pros add yardage for altitude. You should too. If you’re playing a course significantly higher than your home course, take the time an the range to see how much farther your clubs are flying. Simply grabbing your usual 150-yard club will likely send the ball flying over the green. Hitting one less club (e.g., a 9-iron instead of an 8-iron) for all your approach shots might be a simple adjustment that saves you multiple strokes.
The Shriners Children's Open takes place at TPC Summerlin, a course that blends desert scenery with scoring opportunities, making it a favorite for PGA Tour players. Understanding its strategic elements, from the gettable par-5s to the demanding finishing holes, reveals why it produces such exciting, low-scoring shootouts year after year.
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