After some trips to Japan, Bermuda, and Mexico (with a stop in South Carolina on the way), the PGA Tour is back in the United States for the Cadence Bank Houston Open.
This tournament has seen a lot of different sponsors over the years and was known as the Vivint Houston Open in 2020 and the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Houston Open last season.
We will have a new Houston Open champion in 2022, with Jason Kokrak not back to defend his 2021 crown as he’s moved to LIV Golf. In fact, the 2020 champion Carlos Ortiz has also moved to LIV.
There are two past winners in the field, Russell Henley (2017) and Jim Herman (2016).
About the Cadence Bank Houston Open
Not only has the sponsor of the Houston Open changed a bit over the years but so has the location and the scheduling, which is expected when a tournament has been around since 1946.
The Houston Open was played the week before the Masters from 2007 to 2018, so it didn’t always draw the best fields that close to Augusta. This event moved to the Fall in 2019.
Memorial Golf Course Info
This is the third straight year that the Houston Open will be held at Memorial Golf Course, so there is a little bit of course history to go off of here. The winning scores have been -13 and -10 at the Memorial GC the last two seasons, so it does play a bit on the more difficult side.
The par 5’s at Memorial Golf Course have come in the top three in difficulty the last two seasons, so the big hitters should have an edge.
Houston Open Field
World #2 Scottie Scheffler is the +600 favorite playing on back-to-back weekends. He may have broken out of his slump a bit, shooting a 62 last Sunday at Mayakoba for a third-place finish.
Scheffler also had a T2 in Houston last season, and the Dallas native should have plenty of crowd support this weekend in Texas.
Other members of the OWGR Top 20 playing this weekend include Sam Burns (+1400), Tony Finau (+1800), and Hideki Matsuyama (+2200). Oddsmakers also like world #34 Aaron Wise this week, putting him at the third highest odds at +1600 for some reason.
Past Houston Open winner Henley (+2200) has some value this week, coming off a win at the World Wide Technology Championship last weekend, shooting a tournament-tying record of -23.
Other players who have had a top five at Memorial Golf Club the last two years include Joel Dahmen (+5000), Sepp Straka (+6600), Kramer Hickok (+22500), and Kevin Tway (+50000). Dahmen also finished third last weekend at Mayakoba, so he’s in some solid form lately.
We’ve had a nice mix of favorites and underdogs winning on the Fall part of the Tour the past couple of weeks. After this weekend, there are only three more events left on this leg of the Tour until they take a break until the 2023 calendar year.
