Texas Children's Houston Open 2025
Course Breakdown and Player Analysis
Look Ahead
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Index:
Tournament Details
Course Breakdown
Weather
Ideal Player Profile
Key Stats
Picks and Favorite Plays
Assessing the Favorites ( One-and-Done Options)
Last Week in Review (Valspar Picks)
Tournament Details:
Dates: March 21–24, 2024
Location: Memorial Park GC, Houston, TX
Course: Par 70, 7,475 yards
Greens: Bermuda overseeded with Poa Trivalis
Field: 156 players
Cut: Top 65 and ties advance
Purse: $9.5 million, $1.7 million to the winner
FedExCup Points: 500 to the winner
Past Houston Open Champions at Memorial Park: Stephan Jaeger (2024, -12), Tony Finau (2021, -16), Jason Kokrak (2021, -10), Carlos Ortiz (2020, -13)
“The course is relentless. It’s just demanding off the tee. It requires something long and straight, and then you must hit the green in the right spot, too. […] The challenge is all around the greens, the course is still kind of growing in and that’s making it very difficult from down in the low areas around the greens. You just have to get a little bit creative this week and somehow get it up on the green and try and save your par.”
—Adam Scott (2020)
Course Breakdown
Situated in the heart of Houston, Memorial Park is one of the rare municipal golf courses featured on the PGA Tour that a simple peasant boy like myself could enjoy. At 7,475 yards, Memorial Park is already quite long on paper, but when you consider the uncommon five par-3 setup, and only three par-5s this course plays much longer than that number with ten par 4s average 483 yards, and five that play over 490. The course has limited bunkering and water, but its additional defenses lies in the heavily tree-lined fairways, elevated greens with steep runoffs, and tricky Bermuda rough surrounding the greens. Memorial Park offers wide fairways and less penal rough compared to what we’ve seen the past few weeks in Florida, making it more forgiving for less accurate drivers—assuming they catch a break from the trees. However, with rain in the forecast and lift, clean, and place likely in play all four days, fairways could be more important than usual. All-in-all, its yet another challenging golf course where we are likely to see a winning score between 10-15 under par.
Weather
Not great to see the word Thunderstorm in the description every day. Seems like they’ll be scrambling to get 72 holes in by Sunday, and a 54-hole finish could be in the cards.
When they do play, all this rain means the course will be SOFT. It already plays super long, but the rain is going to give an additional advantage to bombers this week. Steady winds and gusts all four days. Impossible to forecast any sort of tee-time wave advantage when it’s unclear when anyone will be able to play golf.
Ideal Player Profile:
It’s another challenging golf course that will present an all-around test. Players will struggle to contend if they aren’t able to gain strokes in all four categories. With the length of the course and the rain in the forecast likely to make it play even longer, distance off-the-tee is also going to be a pre-requisite for me this week. The winner and all five player that finished T-2 last season were certified bombers (Jaeger, Tosti, Detry, Finau, Scheffler, Moore). Approach play is as important as always, but we’ll put an extra emphasis on long irons, as 26% of approach shots coming from over 200 yards, well above the tour average. Greens-in-Regulation percentage is notably lower here, so scrambling ability takes on some additional important this week. With lift, clean and place likely in play all four days, I’ll be looking at driving accuracy (Good Drives Gained) more than usual at this course, but fairways percentage should be high with wide and extremely soft fairways.
The Player: Bomber capable of gaining strokes in all four categories. Strong recent form around-the-greens and on approach, particularly with long irons. Plays long par-4s well, and is accurate enough off-the-tee to consistently hit these wide and extremely soft fairways.
“It does give you a lot of room off the tee on some spots and you can hit some bad drives and still have a perfectly fine lie or whatever. There are some holes that you have to step up and hit a good tee shot to be able to hit on the green, especially with the wind being up this week. And second shots, I mean, you hit it in the wrong spot here you’re making five or bogey at least. That’s a big one, you’ve got to miss in the right spots. Off the tee is obviously a little lenient but there’s still trees, you could still kind of get stymied behind a tree.”
— Steven Jaeger, 2024 Houston Open Champion
Key Stats:
SG: OTT
SG: Approach
SG: Around-the-green
SG: Putting
Driving Distance
Good Drives Gained (drives that still allow GIR from approach)
Proximity from 200+
Par 4 Scoring (500+ yds)
Par-3 Scoring
Stats powered by FantasyNational.com The Strokes Gained statistics we provide are raw Strokes Gained data, powered by FantasyNational.com. These figures measure a player's performance in various areas of their game—such as off-the-tee, approach, around the greens, putting, and more—by comparing their results to the average performance in each category within the field. Raw Strokes Gained data reflects how many strokes a player gains (or loses) relative to the field, without for field strength. I typically reference Strokes Gained over the course of a full tournament (four rounds), or two rounds in the case of a missed cut.
Picks and Favorite Plays
* in Recent Form guide indicates an elevated field (Signature Event, Players, or Major)
PLAY OF THE WEEK
Davis Riley (90-1 / 7,600 DK)
Course History: 14 - 27 - 29
Recent Form: 7 - 38* - 6 - 48 - MC - MC - MC - MC
After struggling with consistent form since his breakout 2022 rookie season, Davis has now made four consecutive cuts, including two recent top-10 finishes. He is coming off an extremely encouraging performance at Copperhead last week where he led the Valspar field in SG: Tee-to-Green despite struggling with accuracy off-the-tee. He gained 6.6 strokes on Approach and was the best in the field Around-the-Green (+6.3 SG: ARG).
I love his chances this week at Memorial Park, a course that suits his game well. He has three previous finishes inside the top-30 at Memorial Park, including an impressive 14th last season during a disastrous stretch of form (MC - 14th - MC - MC - 62 - MC - MC - 78 - MC - MC - MC). He is one of the longest players in the field, and the wide fairways and soft conditions will help mitigate accuracy concerns off-the-tee. Davis is extremely talented and feels like an incredible value here at 90-1 after the performance he had last week.
AMONGST THE FAVORITES
Rory McIlroy (7-1 / 11,700 DK)
Course History: N/A
Recent Form: 1* - 15* - 17* - 1*
Rory's schedule changes again in his lead-up to the Masters, as he makes his debut at Memorial Park this week. At twice the odds and $1,000 cheaper on DraftKings, Rory is getting a significant discount compared to Scottie Scheffler—though I'm not sure it's entirely warranted. Rory has already won two big tournaments this season on courses that don’t typically favor long, elite drivers of the ball. In fact, he won twice despite not driving the ball close to his usual standard. His fairways accuracy is down to 51% on the season compared to 61%. At the Players, he ranked in the bottom-10 of the 155-player field in Fairways Gained.
Rory might be the best driver of all-time, so I’m not too worried about his accuracy long-term. In fact, the fact that he’s been able to win while the best part of his game has been so poor is extremely telling about the state of his game. We’ve heard about the changes he's made to his game, including more three-quarter and lower-flighted shots, which have helped him manage the wind. That showed up in a big way at the Players, where he gained 7.8 strokes on Approach—the best iron week he’s had since May 2019.
This is a long way of saying that I love Rory this week. His game all-around game is best in the world at the moment and this wide track should allow him to freely unleash his driver.
I wouldn’t waste him in one-and-done in this small purse event, but he’s a value at 7-1 and $11,700 on DraftKings.
JJ Spaun (30-1 / 9,900 DK)
Course History: 36 - 46
Recent Form: 2* - 31* - 2 - 34* - 33* - 15 - 29 - 3
JJ’s recent run of fantastic golf was nearly rewarded with a career-changing win at the Players. He’s become one of the most reliable ball-strikers on tour, gaining strokes on approach in every start for the past year, and we should expect that to continue this week. He ranks 2nd in the field in SG: Approach over the past 24 rounds, 10th in Good Drives Gained, and has above-average length, which will allow him to handle the course's length.
The key for JJ right now is his short game, which has been inconsistent week-to-week. He gained multiple strokes both Putting and Around-the-Green at the Players and Cognizant, finishing 2nd in both tournaments. However, he lost strokes in both categories at his other two most recent starts and finished outside the top-30. Historically, the short game has been more of a weakness than a strength for JJ, so I can’t project consistent success in that area this week. Nevertheless, his ball-striking is solid enough that he deserves to be considered among the favorites behind Scottie and Rory.
Davis Thompson (35-1 / 9,400 DK)
Course History: 21 - 43
Recent Form: 10* - MC* - MC - 13* - 36 - 58* - 51 - MC - 36
The extremely talented 25-year-old earned his first PGA Tour win in dominant fashion at the John Deere Classic last July. He’s struggled with consistency week-to-week, but has shown the ability to compete in big events, as evidenced by his 10th-place finish at the Players and a 13th at the Genesis last month. While his results outside of those events have been unimpressive, I’m encouraged by his performance at TPC Sawgrass, where he gained 4 strokes Off-the-Tee, 3 on Approach, and 3.1 Putting.
Davis is long and reasonably straight off-the-tee and has been one of the better scramblers on tour this season. Given the up-and-down nature of his results this year, I’m not sure we can confidently expect him to carry over his strong Players performance into this week, but he has a lot of upside as one of the players most capable of keeping pace with Scottie and Rory at the top. He’s a solid one-and-done option this week.
MID-TIER GUYS WE LIKE
Stephan Jaeger (45-1 / 8,800 DK)
Course History: 1 - 9 - 35
Recent Form: 36 - 20* - MC* - 6 - 44* - 40* - MC - 3 - 36
Jaeger earned his first PGA Tour win here at Memorial Park a year ago, and I have confidence in his ability to do well again this week. While has pretty major issues with accuracy off-the-tee, the rest of his game is in great shape. Over the past three months, he ranks 28th in this field in Approach, 21st Around-the-Green, and 15th in Putting. He’s also had some recent spike weeks, including 5.3 strokes gained on Approach and 4.0 Putting just two weeks ago in an elite field at the Players.
I’m not too concerned about his driving accuracy at Memorial Park—he won the tournament last year while losing strokes in Fairways Gained, and the rest of his game is in a more confidence-inspiring place than it was a year ago. He’s a great one-and-done option in this lower-purse event.
Thomas Detry (55-1 / 8,600 DK)
Course History: T-2 (2024)
Recent Form: 22 - MC* - MC* - 53* - 1 - 48 - 15 - 53 - 5
The hangover from his breakthrough PGA Tour win at the Waste Management seems to have ended last week at the Valspar, as his T-22 finish marked his first decent result in over a month. He finished T-2 at last year’s Houston Open after a similar run of form that included three tough weeks followed by a top-25 at the Valspar. Although he sprayed the ball off the tee at Copperhead last week, the rest of his game looked strong—gaining strokes on approach, around the green, and putting. I expect him to improve with the driver this week, where his length will be an asset, and his misses will be mitigated by Memorial Park’s wide, soft fairways and less penal fairway-adjacent hazards. He’s never a safe play, but I see a lot of upside at a course where he nearly won a year ago.
Joe Highsmith (60-1 / 7,800 DK)
Course History: 21
Recent Form: 22 - 20* - MC* - 1 - 17 - MC - MC - 66 - MC
Joe Highsmith continues to prove that his win at PGA National earlier this month was no fluke, following it up with a top-20 finish at The Players and a strong T-22 finish at the Valspar. His game has been incredibly consistent over the past month, as he’s shown the ability to gain strokes in all four major categories. Most notably, he’s gained multiple strokes on approach in seven of his last eight starts and has averaged 3.2 SG: Putting over his past five events.
While Joe is below average in driving distance, he compensates for that with one of the best long-iron games in the field. He finished T-21 in Houston last year, but given his immensely improved form, he should be able to improve on that result.
Harris English (80-1 / 7,800 DK)
Course History: 39
Recent Form: 30* - MC* - 24* - 73* - 1 - 43 - MC
Has played exclusively in elite fields since his win at the Farmers in January. The finishing results don’t wow you, but 30th at the Players and 24th at the Genesis are decent enough in those highly competitive fields, and I like him here with a step down in class. He’s long and straight off the tee, and often plays well in weather and at difficult courses (three U.S. top-10s). He has gained strokes on approach against elite competition in his last three starts in Players, API, and Genesis, and gained multiple strokes off-the-tee last time out at the Players. Harris has putted well in all but one start this season and has had a few ceiling putting weeks that could get him in contention at a field like this.
INTRIGUING LONG SHOTS
Niklas Norgaard Moller (100-1 / 7,200 DK)
Course History: NA
Recent Form: MC - 34 - 25 - 34 - MC
The tall Dane, in his rookie PGA Tour season, has already shown he can compete, with his impressive length off the tee. He’s made four cuts in six starts so far, and I believe his potential is much higher. In January, he finished T-4 at the Hero Dubai Classic, competing against a strong field that included Tyrell Hatton, Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, and Robert MacIntyre. This result came after a strong run of form on the DP World Tour, where he picked up a win at the British Masters and posted six top-25 finishes between September and January. During that stretch, he was also one of the top putters on the DP World Tour, gaining strokes on the greens in eight consecutive starts.
The main reason I love Niklas for Memorial Park is truly elite distance. He ranks 2nd in driving distance on the PGA Tour, averaging 317 yards off-the-tee. He also ranks 8th in this field in Proximity from 200+ yards over the past two months. With wet conditions expected to make Memorial Park play long, this elite distance and long iron play will be a huge advantage, and I believe the rest of his game is strong enough for him to contend in Houston this week.
Victor Perez (110-1 / 7,100 DK)
Course History: 17
Recent Form: 22 - 18 - 72 - MC - MC - 34
I recommended Perez as a value DFS play last week, and he delivered with a second straight top-25 finish. I’m optimistic about Victor after those last two starts. He finished 4th in SG: Tee-to-Green at the Cognizant, and his ball-striking continued to impress at the Valspar, where he gained 3.5 strokes on Approach and 3.1 strokes Putting. He was 17th at Memorial Park in 2024, and is playing well enough to improve on that result this year.
Steven Fisk (150-1 / 6,900 DK)
Course History: N/A
Recent Form: 28 - 4 - MC - 17 - MC - 63
A 27 year-old rookie that drives the ball extremely long and straight. Steven ranks 14th in this field in Driving Distance and 1st in Good Drives Gained over the past 24 rounds. He’s had solid results in these weaker fields recently with a T-18 in Mexico, T-4 in Puerto Rico, T-28 at the Valspar last week. That Valspar result is even more impressive when you consider that he was +7 after just 21 holes. Fisk played the final 51 holes at 9-under par, gaining 5.6 strokes on Approach while also gaining strokes scrambling and putting. His length and accuracy off the tee will be a huge asset in the wet conditions this week, and if he can continue the form he showed at Copperhead, he could be a surprise contender. He’s worth a look for a top-10 finish at 10/1.
Assessing the Favorites (One-and-Done Options)
Breakdown of the top-10 guys on the odds board this week.
* in Recent Form guide indicates an elevated field (Signature Event, Players, or Major)
Scottie Scheffler (+350 / 12,700 DK)
Course History: 2 - 9 - 2 - 32
Recent Form: 20* - 11* - 3* - 25 - 9*
Scottie is still priced like the world-beater we saw in 2024, but his current form doesn’t reflect that. He’s only been in contention once this season (at the Genesis) and statistically, he’s far from where he was last year when he was consistently leading the field tee-to-green. His approach numbers are down, he’s been off with the driver, and he’s lost strokes Around-the-Green in three of his five starts. He’s also failed to gain strokes putting in two straight events. While his overall stats are still elite compared to the rest of the PGA Tour, he’s not playing at the same level as last season. All that said— he does love Texas golf, so this is a fine place for him to regain that form. I just don’t like the price.
Am I playing him? Not a one-and-done play with with the small purse. Priced too low to bet on, and still feel he’s overpriced as a DFS play.
Rory McIlroy (7-1 / 11,700 DK)
Course History: N/A
Recent Form: 1* - 15* - 17* - 1*
See Above.
Am I playing him? Not a one-and-done play given the purse size, but probably worth the bet and DFS play at the significant discount from Scottie.
Aaron Rai (28-1 / 9,800 DK)
Course History: 7 - 7 - 19
Recent Form: 14* - 11* - 4 - 37* - 40* - MC - 15
Great course history in Houston in addition to terrific form leading in make him an extremely popular play this week, but he won’t be in any of my lineups. While he sacrifices distance off the tee, he typically compensates by hitting more fairways than nearly anyone on tour. He’s done well here despite length off-the-tee, but with rain expected to soften the course and make it play longer, distance could become a more significant issue. Additionally, his proximity from 200+ also ranks 130th in this field over the past 24 rounds, which gives me further concern about his ability to handle the distance this week.
Am I playing him? I think he’ll be a popular one-and-done pick, but I’m avoiding it simply because of the lack of distance.
JJ Spaun (30-1 / 9,900 DK)
Course History: 36 - 46
Recent Form: 2* - 31* - 2 - 34* - 33* - 15 - 29 - 3
See above.
Am I playing him? DFS exposure for sure. Probably saving him in one-and-done for a shorter, positional course similar to TPC Sawgrass / PGA National where he had runner ups.
Michael Kim (35-1 / 8,700 DK)
Course History: 64 - 47
Recent Form: 28 - MC - 4 - 6 - 13 - 13 - 2 - MC - 43 - MC
After a scorching five-week stretch, Michael Kim has come back to earth a bit over the last two weeks. While he continues to gain strokes in all four major categories, his performance has leveled off, as he's been merely above average in those areas, compared to when he was near the top of the field tee-to-green during his hot stretch.
A bigger concern for me is that this will be his 8th consecutive start, and he expressed a fair amount of concern about his chances this week on Twitter.
I’ve had an “I wish I knew how to quit you” relationship with Michael as a fantasy and DFS play over the past month, and I’ll probably be putting that to rest this week if I can resist my pro-Michael Kim biases.
Am I playing him? I’ll be rooting for him to lock up that Masters spot, but I’m probably passing on him this week.
Tony Finau (30-1 / 9,200 DK)
Course History: 2 - 1 - MC - 24
Recent Form: MC* - 36* - 5* - 13* - MC - MC - 15
With a runner-up and a win in his last two trips to Houston, he isn’t someone we can totally ignore. However, I am more than a little concerned that his last three competitive rounds this season have been 76, 76 and 80. The pair of 76s at TPC Sawgrass led to missed cut by 9 strokes, and the final round 80 at Bay Hill ejected entirely out of contention.
I’d be more inclined to brush this off as a couple of bad rounds, but his ball-striking has been far below his usual standard this season. His 5th-place finish at the Genesis was largely propped up by strong play around the greens (+5.7 SG: ARG), and his 13th at the AT&T was boosted by an outlier week with the putter (+4.4 SG: Putting). In fact, over the past two months, he ranks 100th in this field in SG: Approach.
Tony looks like he’s a popular one-and-done play this week, and, given his course history, this could certainly be a place that he regains some form. I’m not confident that happens this week though.
Am I playing him? Fade.
Wyndham Clark (30-1 / 9,100 DK)
Course History: 31 - 16 - 41
Recent Form: 22* - 31* - 16 - 73* - MC - 15
He’s had a couple good early rounds that put him on the front page of a leaderboards, so it might feel like he’s playing better golf than he is, but the truth is that he has not been very good. The last time we saw him, he withdrew from the Players while several strokes back of the cutline, and his lone top-20 finish in the last two months was a 16th at Waste Management in early February.
The only part of his game that has been decent on the season has been his scrambling. Over the past 24 rounds, he ranks 65th in this field Off-the-Tee, 116th on Approach, and 80th Putting—an area that is meant to be the strength of his game. His history at Memorial Park is fine, but nothing that would inspire me to overlook his pedestrian current form.
Am I playing him? Probably the third best golfer in a weak field outside of Scottie and Rory, so I won’t fault anyone for using him in one-and-done. I won’t be.
Min Woo Lee (35-1 / 9,600 DK)
Course History: N/A
Recent Form: 20* - MC* - 11 - 48* - 12 - 17*
Hard player for me to figure out. He possesses a world-class short game and drives the ball a mile, but his ball-striking can be incredibly erratic. He sprays it off the tee and is wildly inconsistent approach. His short game carried him through two rounds at TPC Sawgrass, where he was by far the best putter in the field and leading after two days, but the inconsistent ball-striking caught up to him on the weekend, and he quickly fell out of contention.
Min Woo is a very creative shot-shaper, capable of moving the ball both ways, which is why he shows up on leaderboards at creative layouts like TPC Sawgrass and PGA National. However, my instinct tells me he often tries to do too much. His stats this season reflect erratic and inconsistent ball-striking, which makes me think he’s overvalued as a player who struggles to hit it straight. Still, the distance and elite short game make him better than most in this field as long as he can break even with the irons.
Am I playing him? Probably not.
Davis Thompson (35-1 / 9,400 DK)
Course History: 21 - 43
Recent Form: 10* - MC* - MC - 13* - 36 - 58* - 51 - MC - 36
See above.
Am I playing him? Yes. Some light DFS exposure, and he’s a high-risk one-and-done candidate with upside.
Jason Day (35-1 / 9,000 DK)
Course History: MC - 16 -54 - 7
Recent Form: 8 - 50 -13 - 32 - 4 - 40
He had a legitimate chance to win at Bay Hill last time we saw him, until a mud ball found the water on the 70th hole. On the season, particularly early on, his tee-to-green game has been much improved compared to previous years, although he’s struggled with uncharacteristically poor putting. His tee-to-green game cooled off a bit in Florida, but his putting returned in a big way at Bay Hill, where he gained 5.8 strokes on the greens—5th best in the field for the week. He also spoke positively about the specific changes he made to his putting stroke during the broadcast last Friday, which encourages me that his putting success could continue.
While I probably won’t be using him this week, I’m definitely interested to see how his putting and ball-striking fare as he tunes up for the Masters.
Am I playing him? Unlikely.
Sungjae Im (35-1 / 9,300 DK)
Course History: 19 - 50
Recent Form: 61* - 19* - MC - MC* - 57 - 33* - 4 - MC - 3
Starting to feel annoyed that I’ve had to write about Sungjae for multiple weeks when he has no business being this high on the odds board, so I’ll keep this brief—over the past 3 months, Sungjae ranks 145th of 151 eligible players in this field in SG: Approach. He’s lost over 3 strokes on approach in five of his last six starts, including 6.4 strokes at the Players. The rest of his game is actually pretty solid, but you simply can't compete on the PGA Tour if you're consistently losing this many strokes with your irons, and there haven’t been any signs of improvement.
Am I playing him? Nope.
Last Week in Review (Valspar Picks)
We went all in on the Thursday AM / Friday PM wave stack given the wind forecast, but it didn’t turn out to be nearly as advantageous as we thought. Still, only one missed cut from our 10 recommendations and all but one other finised 28th or better. We also get close to hitting a 50-1 winner with Jacob Bridgeman though who finished solo 3rd.
Recommended Plays from the Valspar:
Jacob Bridgeman (50-1 / 7,400 DK): -9 | 3rd
Our best pick of the week. Co-First round leader and finished solo 3rd. We mentioned last week that he’s shown the ability to run hot with the putter and that was exactly what happened here. Jacob lead the field in SG: Putting gaining 7.8 strokes for the week. This unfortunately coincided with his was his worst approach week (-0.7 SG: Approach) over the past five weeks. Had he been able to replicate the iron play he had shown the past month, he might have earned his first PGA Tour win.
Davis Riley (120-1 / 6,800 DK): -7 | 7th
Very encouraging performance from Davis. Continues to play good golf after struggling for form since his fantastic 2022 rookie season. Lead the field Tee-to-Green despite struggling with accuracy off-the-tee. Gained 6.6 strokes on Approach and a field best 6.3 strokes Around-the-Green. Someone to watch again this week where he has three top-30 finishes and where you can spray it a bit with the driver.
Tommy Fleetwood (10-1 / 10,300 DK) -4 | T-16
Uncharacteristically poor iron week for Tommy. He had consistently been gaining over 4.5 strokes on approach since the beginning of February, but lost 2 with his irons at Copperhead. This was particularly unfortunate because he had his best putting week on the PGA Tour since July 2023, gaining 5.9 strokes on the greens. That 6 stroke swing on approach kept him out of contention.
Victor Perez (185-1 / 6,800 DK): -3 | T-22
Got ahead of myself and tweeted about him late Friday when he found himself tied for the lead, but he then immediately rattled off back-to-back bogeys before a 73 on Saturday took him out of contention. Still, solid performance from a longshot and gained over three strokes on the week with his irons and putter. Love someone popping with scoring clubs so he’ll be someone to watch.
Joe Highsmith (55-1 / 7,300 DK): -3 | T-22
Another strong week from Joe who’s showing his win at the Cognizant early this month wasn’t a fluke. Now has four finished of 22nd or better in his last five starts. Continues to be an elite putter (+3.0 SG: Putting) and a very consistently iron player (+2.2 SG: Approach). Lacks a lot distance off-the-tee so will struggle at a lot of PGA Tour stops, but the elite putting and strong all-around game will keep him relevant.
Michael Kim (28-1 / 8,900 DK): -2 | T-28
Bit of a miss as our Play of the Week. Got lucky to make the cut on the number and didn’t make a move until it was too late on Sunday. Continues to gain strokes in all four categories, but needs to do a bit more with irons and putter if he is going to be in contention— i.e. Above average at everything, but not particularly good with the scoring clubs.
Sepp Straka (16-1 / 10,000 DK): -2 | T-28
Another huge week on approach for Sepp gaining 5.5 on approach (8th in the field), but struggled to convert putts losing 1.0 strokes putting for the week. He was also just around field average Off-the-Tee (+0.2 SG: OTT) and Around-the-Greens (-0.1 SG: ARG). He’s been consistently GREAT with his irons and leads the PGA Tour in SG: Approach this season by a fairly significant margin. He’ll likely be near the top of the leaderboard any week that he can gain strokes with the putter as well.
Stephan Jaeger (45-1 / 7,900 DK): -1 | T-36
First round leader with an opening round 4-under 67, but irons and putter cooled off in a big way Friday and a 4-over 75 pulled him well back of the leaders. Decent over the weekend, but never got himself in back in contention.
Danny Walker (110-1 / 6,900 DK): MC
Gave that caveat that there was potential for a letdown after an emotional week while in contention at the Players, and that part of the analysis panned out. Tough start Thursday and was never particularly close to making the weekend. He had accuracy issues off-the-tee, putted poorly and was a disaster around the greens. I don’t think the 6th place finish at the Players was a total outlier, but I’m going to take a wait-and-see approach with him for a while.
Note to 2026 Tim:
There's no rough on this course. Looks like the 1st cut on a normal course. Absolutely no penalty playing out of it. Only protection on this course is the length and the run steep run-offs.
Love it. Space city weather is a great source for local Houston weather. A lot of uncertainty with this storm. Best case scenario is bad weather Thursday evening to Friday morning and a good weekend. Worst case would be an unfinished Thursday and canceled Friday