munneypicks

2015 Shell Houston Open

Tournament: We stay in Texas for one more week but this time we head to the 4th largest city in the United States, Houston. The Shell Houston Open dates back to 1946 but has been a steady fixture at its’ current venue, The Golf Club of Houston, since 2003. Most of the time, you’ll see players take the week off before a major, but not here. Many top players will be in the field this week because of the unique set up. The tournament officials attempt to make the course play as similar to Augusta National as they can. From the yardage to the green speeds, there are many similarities in the course set up.Course: This course is a par 72 7400+ yard track that can really challenge some of the players. As it’s been for almost every week recently on TOUR, the course has Bermuda greens and fairways, but the mixture used, allows the fairways and greens to play as more of a bent grass. Once again, similar to Augusta. As always in Texas, the wind should be blowing all week and we may see some rain delays during the four day stretch as well.Even though we’re in Texas, this course has plenty of water and bunkers to challenge the players. Since the setup tries to resemble Augusta, we’ll want to look a bit at total driving and 3 putt avoidance. SHO will have some huge undulating greens that will run at a blazing pace on the stimpmeter and we want players who can handle that. Past Winners are below:

2014 – Matt Jones
2013 – D.A. Points
2012 – Hunter Mahan
2011 – Phil Mickleson
2010 – Anthony Kim

Field: Stenson just w/d with the flu (we’ll keep an eye on that going into Augusta) but Jordan Spieth, Patrick Reed, Jimmy Walker, Sergio Garcia, and Martin Kaymer are all in the field.

What to Look For: There are a few major factors I took into account this week. Once is putting. Putting is hard to predict on the PGA TOUR, but I wanted to stay away from consistently poor putters this week. This greens will be Augusta fast and I don’t want to place my money on players who struggle on much slower greens. Another factor to consider is similar course form. There are 3 courses that I have found that seem to have similarities to The Golf Club of Houston; Congressional, Quail Hollow, and Muirfield Village. When you look at past leaderboards at these courses, you will see several names that appear over and over. And several of those names have had success at the Shell Houston Open. Also, I don’t want to pick a ton of outsiders because of the Masters factor. The last spot for the Masters awaits the winner of this tournament and that can be a LOT of pressure. Imagine being on the back nine with a chance to play Augusta National. That isn’t for the faint of heart and has to be considered in my opinion.

A bit of note on the head of the market, Jordan Spieth. He has a poor record here and mentioned in an interview last week that this course does not suit his game. Now Spieth is a world class talent and could likely win on any course on TOUR, but that gives me more than enough reason to stay away at the VERY aggressive price of 7/1.

Free Pick:

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Ryan Moore e/w*: Moore is a name that appears over and over on the leaderboards mentioned above. Three consecutive top 20’s at Quail Hollow, two consecutive top 20’s at Muirfield, and one 11th place finish here. Moore is also playing great golf arriving in Houston with a Masters invitation already secured.