After last week’s wild finish to the Florida swing, the PGA TOUR heads to Texas for the first of two tournaments in the Lone Star State leading up to The Masters. Last week, value play Peter Malnati ended up on top after another crazy Sunday finish.
This week, the pros will head to Houston and take on Memorial Park Golf Course (par 70, 7,435 yards, Bermuda greens). While the sponsor name and placement in the schedule have changed, this course will be hosting the event for the fourth straight year. Tony Finau is the defending champ, although his win came back in November of 2022 before the tournament moved back to the Spring.
The course is designed to help players prepare for The Masters by emulating conditions at Augusta National in several key ways. The course features a combination of length and difficult green-side runoffs to provide the feel of a major championship. It is the fourth-longest course in the annual rotation, but it isn’t all about length since the green complexes have proven very difficult with undulations, runoffs and false fronts. Even without much water or heavy bunkering, this course has played very difficult over the past few seasons. Overall, the course rewards all-around skill sets of distance, ball-striking, and short game while the greens can also be tricky and fast.
After most of the big names took last week off, some of them are back in action this week, including Scottie Scheffler, Wyndham Clark, Sahith Theegala, Jason Day and Will Zalatoris. There are still some great value options in play, though, so check out my top for bargain plays for the Texas Children’s Houston Open, who all have salaries under $7.5K.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $600K PITCH + PUTT [$150K TO 1ST]
Kyoung-Hoon Lee ($7,400) – For a player under $7,500, K.H. Lee has a very high ceiling this week. The 32-year-old South Korean has won twice on the PGA TOUR, winning back-to-back years at the AT&T Byron Nelson Classic across the state TPC Craig Ranch in Dallas. While the course isn’t typically quite as difficult, it does have some similarities to Memorial Park. On this track, Lee missed the cut in his only previous appearance, but he comes in off a pair of top-10 finishes in his last two events. He finished T4 at the Cognizant Classic and T9 last week at the Valspar, and both tournaments play on difficult courses like this one.
Lee has showcased the kind of short game that has proven necessary at this course. He ranks in the top 25 in the field in both Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Stroked Gained: Putting over the last 12 rounds. Lee can be a very boom-or-bust DFS producer, but when he’s dialed in, he turns in high enough finishes to deserve attention this week.
Mark Hubbard ($7,000) – Hubbard has made the cut in all eight of his eight tournaments in the 2024 season. He posted his best finish at Pebble Beach in the elevated event, surging to a T4. He didn’t post any finishes nearly that high in Florida, but he did make the cut in every event and finished with a Final Round 68 at TPC Sawgrass in his last competition two weeks ago.
Hubbard ranks in the top 10 in this field in Strokes Gained: Total over the last six months and in the top 15 in Strokes Gained: Approach. He made the cut in 2020 at this event before being disqualified in 2022 after switching drivers mid-round. He should get a much better result this year, and his recent consistency makes him a good value option at just $7,000.
Andrew Novak ($6,900) – Novak has been one of my top value plays over the last few weeks, and it’s amazing to still get him under $7,000 this week in Houston. Novak reeled off three straight top 10s at the WM Phoenix Open, the Mexico Open and the Cognizant Classic. He missed the cut at THE PLAYERS two weeks ago, but he bounced back nicely with a T17 at the Valspar capped by a 68 in the Final Round.
Over the last 24 rounds, Novak has the seventh-highest Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in the field. In that sample, he also ranks in the top 15 in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. This will be his first career appearance at Memorial Park, but his recent form is strong enough to make him a great upside play with his overall profile being a good fit for the track.
Aaron Baddeley ($6,500) – Baddeley has been on the PGA TOUR for a long time, but the 43-year-old has shown he can still post strong results over the past few months. The veteran with over 500 career starts hasn’t won since 2016 at the Barbasol Championship, but has posted top-30 finishes in four of his last six events, dating back to the WM Phoenix Open.
In six of his last eight measured rounds, he has gained at least 0.90 strokes around the green, and he has continued to be one of the top putters on the PGA TOUR. He ranks first in the field in Stroked Gained: Putting over the last 20 rounds and also ranks in the top five in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green. With driving slightly de-emphasized by the layout this week, it should be the kind of venue where Baddeley can make the weekend and be a good bargain play that produces solid scoring—and also allows you to stuff stars in at the top of your roster with his salary savings.
Set your DraftKings fantasy golf lineups here: PGA TOUR $600K PITCH + PUTT [$150K TO 1ST]
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I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is Hunta512) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.
