The Texas Children’s Houston Open is often used by the PGA TOUR’s top players as a tune-up tournament prior to the first major of the 2025 season, The Masters Tournament in two weeks in Augusta, Georgia. Not many of the TOUR’s stars are expected to tee it up at next weekend’s Valero Texas Open, so this is golf fans’ last chance to see the likes of Scottie Scheffler and Rory McIlroy in action prior to The Masters.
McIlroy has seemed perpetually due to eventually don the green jacket, but astoundingly, he hasn’t claimed a major championship in 10 years. The Northern Irishman is trending in the right direction, though, as he picked up his second win of the season at THE PLAYERS Championship two weeks ago, his second victory at the tournament.
There are hundreds of prop bets available for this weekend as 156 of the world’s best tackle Memorial Park in Houston. Here’s my favorite centered around McIlroy.
Best Rory McIlroy Prop Bet on DraftKings Sportsbook
Rory McIlroy Putts – Round 1 Under 28.5 (-115)
There are several reasons for McIlroy’s supporters to be optimistic about this season, not least because it’s the first time he’s picked up two victories prior to The Masters. In the past, his putter has dogged him; the image of him missing two putts inside four feet in the last three holes of the 2024 U.S. Open, which he ultimately lost by one stroke to Bryson DeChambeau, sticks out particularly vividly.
Prior to this season, McIlroy had only ranked in the top quartile as a putter once. But so far in 2025, he has ranked 10th in Strokes Gained: Putting, and the only category in which he has not been in the top quartile is with his wedges, where he is 52nd out of 183 players. In fact, he leads the PGA TOUR in one-putt percentage despite ranking just 78th in proximity to the hole this season. That proximity should be lower this week, given that Memorial Park Golf Course — where the tournament will be played — is significantly easier from tee to green than TPC Sawgrass, Pebble Beach, Torrey Pines South, or Bay Hill, the four courses that McIlroy has played at so far.
His first-round putting average this season is exactly 28.5 so far, which ranks just 57th on the TOUR. But the only start in which he really struggled on the greens on Thursday was at The Genesis Open at Torrey Pines South, which has among the hardest putting surfaces on the circuit. He particularly excelled with the flat stick two weekends ago at THE PLAYERS, a venue that ranks similarly to Memorial Park in its putting difficulty.
