The PGA TOUR is ready for a Texas two-step to get ready for the Masters in just a few weeks. This week’s stop is the Texas Children’s Houston Open, which will be played at the Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston, Texas. The full field event runs from Thursday, March 26, through Sunday, March 29, barring any weather delays.
Let’s start the week with a look at the format, history and course for the Texas Children’s Houston Open.
The Format of the Texas Children’s Houston Open
The field of 135 golfers lined up for this week’s event in Houston will play all four rounds at the Memorial Park Municipal Golf Course, which is located near downtown Houston. The event uses the typical cut rules: reducing the field to the top 65 and ties after Round 2.
The purse for this week is $9.9 million in total. The winner this week will receive 500 FedExCup points as players look to improve their status for upcoming events and play their way into the next Signature Event, which is the RBC Heritage, following the Masters.
The history of the tournament
The Houston Open dates back all the way to 1922, but this event began in 1946 at River Oaks Country Club before moving to Memorial Park Golf Course the next year. The tournament was held on different courses around the city and outside the city limits until settling back at an updated Memorial Park since 2020.
The tournament has moved around on the calendar, moving from the fall to this spot in the run-up to the Masters. The move from the fall to the spring meant that it wasn’t played in 2023 before Stephan Jaeger won in 2024 and Min Woo Lee claimed last year’s title. When it was in the fall, Carlos Ortiz, Jason Kokrak and Tony Finau claimed the three titles since the event returned to this track.
This is the third year with the name Texas Children’s Houston Open after it went through a number of different sponsors after Shell left the event as the title sponsor following the 2017 tournament won by Russell Henley.
Scottie Scheffler has finished runner-up in each of the last two years, and he’s back again to lead this week’s field. Min Woo Lee is back to defend his title as well, with other big names like Rickie Fowler, Jason Day, Adam Scott and Brooks Koepka in the field.
Check out the full field and opening odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
A Closer Look at the Course
Memorial Park Golf Course is part of Memorial Park, a municipal park in Houston that is one of the largest urban parks in the country. The course dates back to 1912, when it was used as a nine-hole course with sand greens by the convalescent soldiers from the nearby hospital at Camp Logan. In 1935, famous golf course architect John Bredemus redesigned the course, and it was updated again before the PGA TOUR returned in 2020.
Tom Doak headlined the architect group for the recent overhaul, with Koepka serving as player consultant. The new-look course debuted in November of 2020, when Ortiz claimed the Houston Open win by two strokes over Hideki Matsuyama and Dustin Johnson.
The new-look course has five par-3s and three par-5s in the par-70 layout. It plays long but only has 21 bunkers and four holes with water in play. Instead of those hazards we’ve seen plenty of in Florida, the course relies on unique green complexes for defense. The greens have significant breaks to them and are surrounded by many short-grass runoffs along with challenging false fronts.
With the change in the time of year that the course is played, the scoring has improved, and the grass has changed. In the fall, it played on Bermuda grass throughout, but now it is played on overseeded Poa trivialis on the greens and overseeded ryegrass throughout the fairways and rough. The change in the rough has been one of the main reasons the course has played easier relative to par in the last few years.
Here’s a hole-by-hole rundown from the official site of the tournament, and here are the highlights from last year’s tournament to refresh your memory of the look and feel of the course.
From a statistical perspective, this course is one of the most driver-friendly courses on the PGA TOUR. Long hitters typically do very well here, but the green complexes also demand a very good short game. Strokes Gained: Approach is still key, but Driving Distance, Bogey Avoidance and Strokes Gained: Around the Green are also important. It’s also important to keep in mind that the putting surface is overseeded Poa this week, similar to what we’ve seen the last two weeks at the Valspar and THE PLAYERS.
Stay tuned to DK Network all week as we run down our top picks and best bets for this week’s event!
