There is just the one golf tournament this week which comes on the PGA Tour and it is the annual Augusta warm up event which is the Shell Houston Open.
Some of the top players in the world have already headed for Augusta to fine tune their games while others choose to do that here knowing that the conditions on this course will replicate next week’s venue as much as is possible.
The Golf Club of Houston is the venue for the tournament this week as ever. The course is a par 72 which measures 7,441 yards. The fairways aren’t too difficult to find but with little or no rough to speak of this week finding them isn’t the major issue.
Recent history suggests length is the big asset on this track. There are a few corners to clear so the longer you are off the tee the better but water is in play on half of the holes around here so you still need to be in control of your golf ball.
Generally this course ranks one of the toughest for scrambling so we’re looking at players who can hit the greens or who are expert scramblers if they don’t manage to negotiate their way onto the dance floor in regulation.
Jordan Spieth headlines the field this week and he is the 7/1 favourite to win the tournament but I just sense he is slightly off his game. Maybe defending next week is a lot to do with that but I’m happy to pass him over this week.
Rickie Fowler tees it up too and along with Henrik Stenson and Dustin Johnson he is the 14/1 second favourite. Phil Mickelson is next in the betting at 20/1 with Patrick Reed 22/1. It is 25/1 bar those six men but the event has a more open feel about it to me.
I’m looking primarily for length this week but either good putters or good short games are crucial so those characteristics form the make up of my picks for this tournament. As it is our only event this week I’ll go with five men.
The first of them is Brooks Koepka. Koepka took a different approach to Austin Country Club in the match play last week but it served him well until he ran into the monster that currently is Jason Day in the quarter final but that might have been a good thing because two more rounds on Sunday would have been pretty taxing even for someone so fit as the American.
Koepka should be well suited to this golf course. He has plenty of length off the tee and hits a number of greens and when he’s on the greens he knows how to hole a putt. He’s still of a level where this is a big tournament in its own right for him and he’s my first main bet this week.
Louis Oosthuizen might have played seven rounds in the match play last week but for 6.5 of them he was near enough flawless and with a good record in this tournament he is a must back player this week.
Oosthuizen has three top 20 finishes in this tournament including a third placed finish in 2012. He is long enough off the tee to get the ball in the positions needed this week and his short game is up there with anyone’s, as we saw last week.
With the form and confidence he carries forward I think he’s a big player here particularly with the inspiration his friend Schwartzel’s win at the Valspar recently will have given him.
My last three are going to be a few darts at bigger prices, all of whom fit the ability criteria and should be capable of giving us a decent run for our money.
Back to back winners has been a theme on the PGA Tour recently with Adam Scott and Jason Day both doubling up their wins and it might just be that Tony Finau can continue that trend.
Finau smashes the ball a long way and finds plenty of greens in regulation and he’ll never have more confidence with the short stick than straight after he has won a tournament. Of course he might have enjoyed that win and celebrated it accordingly, which he would be perfectly entitled to do, but if he has recovered sufficiently he should do some damage on this course this week.
I’ve backed Jamie Lovemark before this season and he almost delivered for me and I think it could be worth taking him again. Lovemark had a good time of things around the turn of the year and he was back in contention at Bay Hill a couple of weeks ago and this course should really bring out the best part of his game again.
Lovemark is more than long enough off the tee and sits eighth in the scrambling statistic and they are two big things this week. We know he is a decent enough putter from the Career Builder Challenge earlier in the season so if it all comes together he should go pretty close again this week.
My final pick is a little from left field but it is Bernd Wiesberger. This should be a good deck for Wiesberger. He isn’t the tightest off the tee but that is fine around here but he does hit a lot of greens and if he can get the putts to drop he is another with the credentials to go well this week.
Wiesberger tends to putt better on trickier greens so I’m hoping that he has some joy with the short stick here and if he does he’ll quickly outrun his three figure price.
Back B.Koepka to win Shell Houston Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Paddy Power (1/5 1-7)
Back J.Lovemark to win Shell Houston Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 81.00 with Paddy Power (1/5 1-7)
Back B.Wiesberger to win Shell Houston Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 126.00 with Paddy Power (1/5 1-7)
Back them here:
Back L.Oosthuizen to win Shell Houston Open (e/w) for a 1/10 stake at 26.00 with Stan James (1/4 1-6)
Back T.Finau to win Shell Houston Open (e/w) for a 0.5/10 stake at 61.00 with Skybet (1/4 1-6)
Back him here:
Boylesports are offering Money Back if your player finishes 2nd or 3rd in this tournament – see details here:
