Houston Open Odds And Picks

Delayed this week with travel and all sports coverage, including this week’s Houston Open. This is the second year Memorial Park hosts the tournament, and you can read my full tournament preview of the Houston Open with players odds, stats, tournament info, golfers to watch and information you can bet on at TheLines.

Some of the top players in the world and leading golfers in the current FedExCup Standings are playing this week in Houston.

Top players in the Official World Golf Rankings

• Tony Finau (12)
• Brooks Koepka (15)
• Sam Burns (18)
• Tyrrell Hatton (19)
• Scottie Scheffler (21)
• Cameron Smith (22)
• Patrick Reed (23)
• Sungjae Im (24)
• Jason Kokrak (29)
• Joaquin Niemann (30)
• Matthew Wolff (31)
• Max Homa (33)
• Marc Leishman (35)
• Lee Westwood (37)
• Adam Scott (40)
• Shane Lowry (42)
• Christiaan Bezuidenhout (45)
• Stewart Cink (48)
• Carlos Ortiz (49)
• Mackenzie Hughes (50)

Top players in the current FedEx Cup Standings

• Sam Burns (1)
• Sungjae Im (2)
• Max Homa (5)
• Lucas Herbert (6)
• Matthew Wolff (8)
• Maverick McNealy (9)
• Cameron Tringale (11)
• Talor Gooch (12)
• Carlos Ortiz (13)
• Nick Watney (16)
• Marc Leishman (17)
• Aaron Wise (18)
• Patrick Reed (20)
• Andrew Landry (25)
• Scott Stallings (26)
• Adam Schenk (29)
• Lanto Griffin (30)

Houston Open Odds 2021

Houston Open

S Burns 16/1
S Scheffler 18/1
S Im 20/1
C Smith 20/1
M Wolff 25/1
T Finau 25/1
B Koepka 30/1
T Hatton 30/1
T Gooch 30/1
A Wise 30/1
J Niemann 30/1
A Scott 35/1
C Ortiz 35/1
P Reed 40/1
M Leishman 40/1
M McNealy 40/1
R Henley 40/1

72 Hole Winning Score: 266.5

— Jeff Sherman (@golfodds) November 8, 2021

Course and Tournament Info

• Course: Memorial Park Golf Course
• Location: Houston, TX
• Date: Nov. 11-14, 2021
• Par: 70 / 7,412 yards
• Fairways/Rough: Bermudagrass
• Greens: Bermudagrass
• Purse: $7.5 Million / Winner $1.3 Million
• TV: Golf Channel
• Twitter: @HouOpenGolf

Last year’s event was played a week before The Masters, and this will be the second time the recently renovated Memorial Park Golf Course hosts the Houston Open. The Tom Doak redesign is influenced by his study of links courses overseas. Brooks Koepka served as player consultant of the redesign and renovation project, and the course now has just 17 sand bunkers with water in play on four holes. Many previous sand traps are now steep slopes covered in short grass, and areas around the green complexes are mowed shorter with tight grass slopes, contours and runoff areas.

The tricky, undulated greens and runoff areas that repel more golf shots proved to be difficult in last year’s first PGA TOUR event at Memorial Park. Some greens are raised and canted, and the character, undulation and speed of the larger-than-average greens (7,000 square feet) make it more difficult to get shots closer to the pins.

Read more…including additional analysis on golfers to watch and key stats.

White stats provide a base point to reference and review each week, and help form each week’s power rankings at TheLines, the scoring conditions toughen at Memorial Park. That puts more emphasis on players with a skilled all-around game.

Looking at last year’s Strokes Gained stats at Memorial Park, Carlos Ortiz won and led the field in Strokes Gained: Total, Short Game and was No. 2 in Around the Green and top five in Putting. Returning players Talor Gooch, Brooks Koepka, Mackenzie Hughes, Russell Knox, Jason Day and Scottie Scheffler were leaders in SG: Short Game, so look towards players with stronger short games and ability to chip and putt.

Along with more difficult scoring conditions, look towards a mix of these key stats in addition to total strokes gained at Memorial Park.

• SG: Approach
• SG: Short Game
• SG: Off-the-Tee and Distance

Golfers to Watch

Russell Henley (+4500)

Henley has excelled on par-70 courses. In fact, he’s gained strokes in all 13 starts on those par-70s that exceed 7,250 yards. He hits it so good, and his Ball Striking, Approach and Tee-tp-Green game were all top 15 in this field in last year’s event at Memorial Park. Henley ranks No. 2 in proximity to the hole from all yardages over his last 36 rounds, and he’ll be giving himself plenty of good looks at birdie this week. Value and victory within range for a player ranked top three in Greens in Regulation and just so happened to finish in 3rd place in the Honda Classic this year on the comp course at PGA National where his putting and total strokes gained were superb. Henley is +1300 to be in the top 5 after Round 1.

Houston Open Picks

Fairway’s Favorites: Sungjae Im, Cameron Smith, Brooks Koepka, Tyrrell Hatton
Fairway’s Longshots: Russell Henley, Adam Scott, Mito Pereira, Roger Sloan

Tournament Match-ups: Pass. as I was delayed in posting and limited time for additional match-up research. However, I like Russell Henley and located a match-up of interest. Russell Henley over Harold Varner III full tournament match-up.

Tournament match-ups finished 21-15 following a sizzling 17-5 start during 2020-21 season. The season concluded with the FedExCup Playoffs and the final events of the BMW Championship and TOUR Championship. Recent 2021-22 events covered included the CJ Cup in Las Vegas, where our posted tournament match-ups went 1-1 with a 1-stroke loss.