Stephan Jaeger -12
Scottie Scheffler -11
Alejandro Tosti -11
Thomas Detry -11
Taylor Moore -11
Tony Finau -11
David Skinns -10
Max Greyserman -10
Aaron Rai -10
Billy Horschel -10
Scottie Scheffler 5/4
Stephan Jaeger 6/1
Thomas Detry 8/1
Akshay Bhatia 12/1
Taylor Moore 12/1
Alejandro Tosti 14/1
David Skinns 16/1
Tony Finau 16/1
Nick Dunlap 20/1
Aaron Rai 25/1
Max Greyserman 40/1
Chad Ramey 50/1
Tom Hoge 125/1
Victor Perez 200/1
Alex Noren 250/1
Jacob Bridgeman 250/1
Billy Horschel 300/1
Cameron Champ 400/1
Nate Lashley 500/1
Si Woo Kim 500/1
Erik Barnes 750/1
Kevin Dougherty 750/1
Kurt Kitayama 750/1
Mackenzie Hughes 750/1
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The PGA Tour now moves from Florida to Texas and a new/old venue. This will be a new venue to the current tour players, but it was home to the Houston Open from 1951 to 1963. Memorial Park Golf Course is known as one of the best municipal courses in America, designed by John Bredemus the course was originally a 9-hole course with sand greens, built near the hospital at Camp Logan for use by convalescent soldiers.
In 1994, on behalf of Mayor Bob Lanier, Houston Park Board member Nancy Reynolds began a campaign to restore the golf course and preserve its historical quality while allowing for modern maintenance methods to help sustain the courses future. In 1995, the newly renovated 600-acre course opened with a floodlit driving range, putting and chipping greens, and a new clubhouse.
The course underwent a further redesign undertaken by Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design firm at a cost of $13.5-million, the renovations were completed in November 2019 ahead of the PGA Tour's planned return to Memorial Park for this week’s Houston Open.
The redesign included sand capping fairways, installing additional drainage, and the irrigation pond was tripled in size, with the excavated material used to form additional contouring around the course. Eight of the original greens were moved, the par five 8th was lengthened, and the par four 9th was altered from a par four to a par three. The par five 15th is now a driveable par four and the 16th has been extended to a par five. Tees and fairways on the front nine were repositioned to bring the ravines into play from the 2nd through to the 7th holes and additional water hazards were incorporated into the design to strength the home stretch of holes, starting at the short 15th.
For another trusted Memorial Park GC review click here
This week’s defending champion is Tony Finau 22/1 – with Bet365 – who has had a very strange season so far and comes into this week on the back of a missed cut at the Valspar Championship. Tony does have four Top 25 finishes from his eight starts, but has only really challenged at the Farmers Insurance Open. But, I feel being back here and defending his title he will want to put in a good defence this week.
A runner-up and three other Top 10 finishes from his eight starts should see Sahith Theegala 22/1 – with UniBet – arrive in Houston in buoyant mood. A final round 64 here last year see Sahith storm up the leaderboard and into the Top 25, but I expect him to be right in the thick of the battle come Sunday afternoon.
Each-way tips:
A Top 6 finish after a final round 64 at THE PLAYERS Championship should see Si Woo Kim 33/1 – with UniBet – arrive here this week in confident mood. Si Woo now has five Top 25 finishes from his eight starts this year but that sixth-place at THE PLAYERS was the first time he has actually challenged for the win and I expect him to be doing the same again this week
It has been great to watch the rise of Jake Knapp 55/1 – with BetVictor – and his win, which he followed up with a Top 5 the following week shows that Jake will be challenging a lot more in the future. I feel it was no surprise that there was going to be some sort of mental fatigue when he went straight into the following event, but a weeks rest should see him back in the hunt again this week.
Outside tip:
How much that shot into the water coming down the stretch at the Valspar Championship at the weekend will affect Mackenzie Hughes 66/1 – with LiveScoreBet – this week we are about to find out. But, he still had a third-place finish and I am sure he will be looking at the positives of that being his best finish of the year so far. Mackenzie will be coming back to a course where he had a Top 16 the last time the event was played
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