With the Florida swing in the rear view mirror, the PGA tour moves to Texas for the Texas Children’s Houston Open.

The Houston Open was not played in 2023. Tony Finau won the tournament in 2022 with a score of 16 under par. He went wire to wire winning by four strokes. The field was relatively weak outside of Scheffler and Wyndham Clark but neither were at their current form at the time.

In 2021 Jason Kokrak rallied on Sunday shooting a 65 and winning by two strokes. Scottie Scheffler had a two shot lead making the turn in Sunday but made three bogeys on the back nine and finished two strokes off the lead at eight under.

The Houston Open will be played at Memorial Park Golf Course in Houston Texas. It has hosted the Houston Open for three years from 2020-2022. The course has hosted PGA events 14 times from 1947 to 1963 including the Houston Open from 1951 to 1963 and the most recent three years.

Last year the tournament was bumped from the schedule but with Match Play getting the boot, the Houston Open will slot back into it’s spot. In the most recent run from 2020-2022 the tournament was played in November. The move to the Spring could provide some different conditions.

Houston has already recorded 10.5 inches of rain in 2024. It’s the most in over 120 years. With potential storms early this week the course could play rather soft for this time of year.

Memorial Park Golf Course is a 7,435 Par 70 with Bermuda Greens. It plays very long when in general especially when adjusted for Par. There are only 19 bunkers but they are deep and penal. There are also two water hazards on the course.

There are three par fives, five par threes and ten par fours on the course. The 3rd and 16th hole are par fives slightly under 600 yards and play as some of the easier holes on the course. Especially number three which boasts a 35% birdie rate. Hole number eight is a 625 yard par five that will not be reachable in two by most but does still boast a 30% birdie rate. The par threes range from 155-237 yards with two of them playing over 200 yards. There are three par fours that play over 500 yards and five of the six most difficult holes are par threes.

Length off the tee definitely helps here with many golfers choosing distance over accuracy. The average drive comes in at 292 yards which is above tour average. As a result driving accuracy is lower than tour average coming in at 60 percent. The fairways are tree lined but there is some room between the edge of fairways and the trees. However if golfers miss wildly off the tee the trees could come into play.

Even with longer drives golfers will find themselves with long approach shots. Shots from 200+ yards make up 26% of all approach shots with another 21% coming from 150-175 yards.

With longer approach shots, greens in regulation percentage is also lower than tour average with 62% of greens being hit. Proximity to the hole when hitting greens is also higher than average coming in at an average of 29.5 feet. The greens are elevated, fast and sloped with tightly mown runoff areas that could lean to missed greens.

As always in Texas we’ll want to keep an eye on the wind. Winds can cause carnage on what’s already a difficult course.

Overall this is a very long course that plays very difficult. There are generally more bogeys made than birdies. Golfers with some distance that can avoid bogeys and score on the par fives should fair well here.

There are 144 golfers in the field and the Top 65 and Ties make the cut after 36 Holes

2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open: Key Stats and Figures

• Strokes Gained Approach
• Par Five Scoring
• Approach from 200+ yards
• Driving Distance
• Bogey Avoidance

Historical Cut Line

• 2022: +1
• 2021: +2
• 2020: +4

PREVIOUS WINNERS

2022: Tony Finau -16
2021: Jason Kokrak -10
2020: Carlos Ortiz -13