Texas Children's Houston Open
Course: Memorial Park Golf Course (7,475 yards, par 70)
Purse: $9,900,000
Winner: $1,782,000 and 500 FedExCup Points
Tournament Preview
With the West Coast Swing and the Florida Swing now in the review mirror, the PGA Tour heads to Texas for the first of two events prior to The Masters. The first will be at Memorial Park Golf Course for the Texas Children's Houston Open. Memorial Park will be hosting this event for the sixth straight edition after the Golf Club of Houston played host from 2003-2020. The Houston Open was a fall event from 2019-2022, before moving back to a spring date in 2024.
The big news this week is that World No. 1 and Texas native Scottie Scheffler has withdrawn from the field as he is expecting the birth of his second child. He was a late add to the tournament to begin with and the baby watch likely had something to do with it. This will likely mean that Scheffler will have a full three weeks off from THE PLAYERS to The Masters. The question now is more to do with his form. After a record streak of 18 straight top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour, Scheffler has now finished outside the top-10 in three consecutive starts. He just hasn't been 100 percent sharp since his season-opening victory at The American Express.
Chris Gotterup, Ben Griffin and Harris English make up the only three players who rank inside that Top 25 of the OWGR that are teeing it up this week. Min Woo Lee (31st) will return trying to defend his first PGA Tour title after setting the 72-hole tournament scoring record last year (260).
The Houston Open will mark the last tournament before the Top 50 cutoff for The Masters is finalized. Following this event, all players who are ranked inside the Top 50 of the OWGR will be granted invites to the first major of the year if they have not already qualified. Players to watch on the bubble this week would be Jake Knapp (42nd), Nicolai Hojgaard (47th), Pierceson Coody (51st), Michael Thorbjornsen (56th) and Rickie Fowler (61st). You would also be able to qualify for the Masters if they won this week or at next week's Valero Texas Open.
After an excellent week of weather at the Valspar Championship, it's looking like Mother Nature will be cooperating again in Houston. There is very little chance of precipitation throughout the week, which should hopefully keep the course playing firm and fast much like Innisbrook did last week. Temperature will top out in the mid-80s on Thursday and Friday, before cooling down just a touch for the weekend. Winds should average out around 10-15 mph, with gusts at times around 20 mph. Last year's tournament experienced heavy rain early in the week, which really soften the golf course up and led to that 20-under winning score. Memorial Park held up to an average of -12.75 over the first four editions, so I'd expect a winning score this year closer to that number.
Recent Champions
2025 - Min Woo Lee (-20)
2024 - Stephan Jaeger (-12)
2023 - No Tournament
2022 - Tony Finau (-16)
2021 - Jason Kokrak (-10)
2020 - Carlos Ortiz (-13)
2019 - Lanto Griffin (-14)
2018 - Ian Poulter (-19)
2017 - Russell Henley (-20)
2016 - Jim Herman (-15)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Off-the-Tee/Driving Distance
- SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling
- SG: Approach/GIR Percentage
- Par-3 Scoring/Bogey Avoidance
Champion's Profile
Memorial Park has become known as a Bomber's Paradise. All the of the leaderboards over the last few years here have been absolutely littered with guys who can hit it a mile. The course in general is very spacious off the tee and being in this overseeded rough is generally not a huge penalty. Because of the contouring and design of these greens, a lot of approaches will be rolling off the putting surfaces to collection areas. That will create ample opportunities for players to gain strokes around the greens. If ever there was a week to target bombers who rank high in SG: Around-the-Green/Scrambling this would be it. Perhaps it's not surprise that Min Woo Lee and Stephan Jaeger have won the last two years at Memorial Park.
These overseeded Bermudagrass greens roll very true. Hopefully the PGA Tour will allow them to be a little quicker this week given the good forecast. Players who have seen them before should be at an advantage. Iron play will still be a big factor as always. This course has a really nice mix of long and short par-4s, which will force players to have to hit a lot of different clubs in their bag. This par 70 features five par-3s of varying length along with a trio of par-5s which can all be reached by the longer players. Par-3 scoring and bogey avoidance could be more key than normal, as we don't expect this course to be giving up a barrage of birdies given the firm conditions.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Min Woo Lee ($11,600)
The defending champion is in great form with nine top-15 finishes in his last 15 starts worldwide. Lee has been one of the best drivers on Tour in 2026 ranking seventh in SG: Off-the-Tee and third in total driving. His iron play continues to be solid and he remains one of the most dangerous players around the green with a wedge in hand. Lee was second last year at Memorial Park in SG: Putting and has been on fire recently with the flat stick.
Brooks Koepka ($11,300)
I was excited that Koepka was back on the PGA Tour, but my expectations were not high at all for the five-time major winner in 2026. I must say I've been impressed with what he has done of late, however. He went T9-T13-T18 on the Florida Swing after a dreadful West Coast Swing with the putter. The iron play has been outstanding as Koepka leads the PGA Tour in SG: Approach and ranks 18th in proximity. Now he heads to a course in Memorial Park where he worked as a player consultant during the Tom Doak redesign in 2019. Koepka is trending with The Masters fast approaching.
Nicolai Hojgaard ($10,800)
Hojgaard just needs a solid finish to secure his spot into The Masters, but Memorial Park is without question a venue that he can win at. His T55 finish last week snapped a streak of six straight top-30 finishes. I think he's got a great chance to bounce back at a venue where he will be able to unleash off the tee. Hojgaard ranks top 30 this season in driving distance, club head speed, SG: Approach, scrambling and SG: Putting. He also is top 20 in bogey avoidance and par-3 scoring.
The Middle Tier
Adam Scott ($10,300)
The veteran checked in third in my model this week thanks to some stellar ball striking numbers. Scott ranks 26th in driving distance, ninth in SG: Approach and fifth in proximity. He is also 23rd in scrambling and top 20 in both par-3 and par-5 scoring. Scott has not missed a cut anywhere since The Open Championship last summer. He has five top-12 finishes in that stretch as well.
Sahith Theegala ($9,300)
Theegala feels like a little bit of a mis-price here. Yeah he didn't have a great showing last week, but it wasn't really a course that suited Theegala's strengths. He will be able to spray it all around Memorial Park and use his stellar short game and putting to really score. His iron play has taken major strides as well since the start of February. Theegala has played four times at Memorial Park and has never missed a cut.
Ryan Fox ($9,100)
There is certainly some concern about how Fox will fair this week given that he is coming off kidney stone surgery. That said, I'm willing to take a chance on him at this price because he pops in the model. Fox has finished top-25 in his last four events and was T15 a year ago at Memorial Park. He is also one of the longest drivers on the PGA Tour, a quality long-iron player, has an underrated short game and has been hot in 2026 with the putter. Fox checks all the boxes.
The Long Shots
Gary Woodland ($8,900)
Woodland has not had the type of year he was hoping for to this point, but he could turn that around this week. Woodland is coming off a strong T14 showing at the Valspar and now heads to Memorial Park where he has great vibes with a T9-T21-T2 finish the last three editions. He might be 41 years old, but he ranks fourth in SG: Off-the-Tee, first in driving distance and first in club head speed on the PGA Tour. That will play at this course.
Adrien Dumont de Chassart ($8,400)
ADDC is coming off his third straight top-30 finish where he led the field in SG: Around-the Green. It should have been a much better finish than a T26 as he dropped 20 spots with a 74 in the final round. ADDC does profile quite well for Memorial Park as a bomber who has great short-game numbers. He is also a strong mid-to-long iron player who should thrive on a course with five par-3s, just like there was a week ago.
David Ford ($7,900)
I was very high on Ford last week and he didn't quite put it together, carding a T46 finish. I'm inclined to give Ford another shot as he checks in inside the top 10 of my model. He ranks inside the top 25 percent of the PGA Tour in SG: Off-the-Tee, SG: Approach, driving distance, GIR percentage, scrambling, bogey avoidance and par-3 scoring. All of those will factor into the result this week at Memorial Park.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
Before his withdrawal, Scottie Scheffler checked in at $15,200, a full $3,400 in front of the No. 2 option of Chris Gotterup this week. I didn't think there was a lot of value there to begin with, but now with Scheffler not being an option I would imagine a lot of those options in the $11K range would see the ownership pretty spread out just depending on how you feel about them. I do think the $9K and $10K ranges are quite strong. I mentioned a handful above, but other options I'll be interested in are Kurt Kitayama ($10,500), Keith Mitchell ($9,900), Stephan Jaeger ($9,500) and Patrick Rodgers ($9,100). There isn't a ton of course history to work with, but as mentioned before the guys who have been doing the best are your bombers with touch around the greens.
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