Tuesday, March 27, 2018

What to Look For: 2018 Houston Open

The Tour is at Houston this week for the 72nd Houston Open.



The Houston Open was sponsored by Shell since 1992, but ended its sponsorship last year. The Tour is currently seeking out a new sponsorship.

The event is held at the Golf Club of Houston, formerly known as the Redstone Golf Club. GC of Houston was built in 2003 and designed by Rees Jones and David Toms. It follows a Rees Jones type of design…very long (7,422 yards), pretty wide open and one drive-able par-4 (#12).

A couple of weeks ago I made this tweet on designers:



I did get some people putting Rees Jones as ‘the worst’ or ‘most overrated.’ Personally, I’m not a huge lover of Rees Jones designs, but I don’t think they are anywhere near the worst. They can be a little boring, but I would rather take a little boring than a bunch of gimmicky holes or the designer that designs a bunch of bad holes just so they can design 1 or 2 beautiful holes. Or the designer that creates a torture chamber or the designer has zero clue about how to create a nice ebb and flow to their design.

The general consensus I’ve received on Tour is that GC of Houston is fairly well received. It does tend to favor the long hitters because it’s so open and there’s virtually no rough on the course. But a mid-range power player can win here as well.

What I also like about GC of Houston is that it’s a great warmup for the Masters the following week as the courses have that similarities of being long, wide open and virtually no rough on the course. Also, the 18th is the final critical hole on the course and it provides for some excitement on Sunday.

PROJECTED WINNING SCORE: -16


3JACK’S FAVORITES

Justin Rose +1,000
Daniel Berger +2,500
Rafa Cabrera Bello +3,000
Byeong Hun An +4,000


3JACK’S DARK HORSE PICKS

Charles Howell III +5,000
Thomas Pieters +5,000
Jamie Lovemark +6,000
JB Holmes +7,000
Rory Sabbatini +10,000
Corey Conners +12,500







3JACK

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