HOUSTON – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – The PGA Tour shifts from its Florida Swing to Texas for this week’s Texas Children’s Houston Open, which begins today at Memorial Park Golf Course.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler seeks his third consecutive victory against a solid field. Our golf experts preview the event and provide their favorite prop picks along with best bets to win this week.
TEXAS CHILDREN’S OPEN
Location: Houston, March 28-31
Course: Memorial Park Golf Course (Par 70, 7,435 yards)
Purse: $9.1M (Winner: $1.638M)
Defending Champion: Tony Finau (2022)
FedEx Cup Leader: Scottie Scheffler
HOW TO FOLLOW
TV: Thursday-Friday, 4-7 p.m. ET (Golf Channel); Saturday, 1-3:30 p.m. (GC), 3:30-6 p.m. (NBC); Sunday, 1-2:30 p.m. (GC), 2:30-6 p.m. (NBC)
Streaming (ESPN+): Thursday-Friday, 8:15 a.m.-7 p.m. ET; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
X: @TXHouOpen
PROP PICKS
–The Field vs. Scottie Scheffler (-400 at BetMGM): There is little question that Scheffler is the best — and hottest — golfer on the planet. There’s also a good reason why it has been seven years since anyone has won three consecutive starts on tour — it’s really hard to do. It’s certainly not the strongest field of the year, but there is enough talent lurking around Memorial Park to believe Scheffler will have a difficult time making it three straight ahead of the Masters.
–Si Woo Kim to Beat Tony Finau (-110 at DraftKings): Kim is coming off a T6 at the Players in his most recent start and has a pair of other top-15 results in his past five starts overall. Finau is the defending champion, but that came in the Fall of 2022 on a much firmer golf course. He believes his hard work off the course will translate into quality results soon, but his recent track record includes a missed cut last week after a T45 at the Players.
–Wyndham Clark Top 10 (+130 at BetMGM): The only player better than Clark in each of his past two starts has been Scheffler, and he also won at Pebble Beach earlier this year. A career-best fourth in the world rankings, Clark is in excellent form and knows Memorial Park well from his T16 in the Fall of ’22.
2024 Prop Picks Record: 18-17-1
BEST BETS
–Scottie Scheffler (+275 at BetMGM) is trying to become the first player to win three consecutive events on tour since Dustin Johnson in 2017. He has a T2 and a T9 in Houston the past two seasons. He opened at +300, but those odds have shortened slightly with Scheffler third in both total bets (7.0 percent) and money (19.5 percent) backing him to win this week.
–Wyndham Clark (+1200) has finished runner-up to Scheffler in each of his past two events. He’s the second biggest liability at BetMGM, where Clark is second with 18 percent of the money supporting him to win. A caution flkag, as Clark is battling an injured back, suffered Monday when he was lifting weights.
–Sahith Theegala (+1600) is a Spring, Texas resident and has consecutive top-10s entering the week. Those factors have contributed to Theegala being the book’s biggest liability as he leads the field with 19.5 percent of the total money backing him since opening at +2200.
–Will Zalatoris (+1800) makes his tournament debut while coming off consecutive top-5s in his past two starts. He’s the third biggest liability at the book this week.
–Tony Finau (+2500) won by four shots in 2022 but has a lone top-10 in eight starts this season.
NOTES
–The event returns to a spring date after being contested in the fall each of the past four seasons. It was not played in the 2023 calendar year.
–This is the fourth playing at Memorial Park, which first hosted the tournament in 2020.
–The top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking after this event will qualify for the Masters if not already exempt. The highest-ranked players in this week’s field who are not yet exempt are No. 57 Tom Hoge, No. 63 Mackenzie Hughes and No. 66 Alex Noren.
–Padraig Harrington, who won on the Champions Tour last week, is in the field on a sponsor exemption.
–Field Level Media