US Tour preview: Confident Grillo aiming for back-to-back victories

Argentina's Emiliano Grillo will look to become the first player to win the opening two events of the PGA Tour season since 2003 in this week's Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

Grillo won the Frys.com Open in California last Sunday and victory at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas would see him match the feat of four-time Major winner Ernie Els, who won the Mercedes Championship and Sony Open in Hawaii 12 years ago.

The 23-year-old jumped to 36th in the world rankings as a result of his playoff win over Kevin Na and admits that came as a massive relief after missing from three feet on the 72nd hole to win the Puerto Rico Open earlier this year.

“Winning out here, it’s been a dream my whole life,” Grillo told a pre-tournament press conference. “I feel a huge relief. I can say I’m a winner now. I won on the Web.com Tour, I won on the Latin America Tour, but it didn’t feel right.

“I knew what I was capable of, I just didn’t get there before Sunday. But yeah, there’s a lot of confidence there. I really can’t wait for Thursday to tee off. The weather is unbelievable out here and it’s a great week. It’s Vegas.

Two rounds

Grillo will play the opening two rounds alongside American pair

Charley Hoffman

and

Ryan Moore

.

World number five Rickie Fowler is the top-ranked player in the field and has been paired with Ryder Cup captain Davis Love and Jimmy Walker for the first two rounds.

Fowler and Walker halved three and won one of their four matches together in last year’s Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.