2024 Texas Children's Houston Open Preview, Picks & Analysis

Scottie Scheffler will be looking for his third successive PGA Tour victory when he tees it up at the 2024 Texas Children’s Houston Open at Memorial Park Golf Course.

The 27-year-old American is in the form of his life, having won the Arnold Palmer Invitational and then successfully defended the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. There will be a strong field in Texas but can anybody stop Scheffler? He will now be fully focused on getting his game in shape for The Masters. The level of consistency he shows week in, week out is hard to comprehend. Winning golf tournaments and contending week after week is supposed to take it out of you. Try telling that to Scheffler.

So who is going to give him a run for his money?

Wydnahm Clark has won three times in less than a year, including the rain-shortened AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at the start of the year. He looked Scheffler square in the eye at the Players Championship but came up a stroke short after his putt at the last to force a playoff hit the hole, did a full 360-degree turn and refused to drop. Clark has become a big-time player who thrives on tough golf courses. He is the US Open champion - and do not forget that he claimed his first major going toe to toe with none other than Rory McIlroy. 

Clark was born in Denver on December 9, 1993 and has been a professional since 2017. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He attended the University of Oregon and finished ninth at the US Amateur championship in 2012. While he was at university, his mother died of breast cancer and he has said that he wants to start a breast cancer foundation. He is an excellent table-tennis player.

He was twice Colorado state amateur champion before turning professional in 2017. He was a teammate of Bryson DeChambeau in the 2014 Palmer Cup match at Walton Heath between the top college players of the United States and Europe, whose line-up included Jon Rahm. They faced each other in the concluding singles with Rahm coming out on top 4&3.

He qualified to play on Web.com Tour for the 2018 season, making 24 starts and achieving four top-10 finishes. He finished the season in 16th place on the money list, securing his card for the PGA Tour.

After missing two cuts early on in the 2023 season, he finished tied 10th at the RSM Classic and Phoenix Open, fifth at the Valspar, sixth at the Corales Puntacana Championship, third at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and 12th at The Memorial.

His first PGA Tour victory came at the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship. Prior to that, his best finish came at the 2020 Bermuda Championship, where he lost in a playoff to Brian Gay.

His win at the Wells Fargo came in his 134th start. And he followed it by winning the US Open, beating Rory McIlroy by a single shot as he held on for his first major title.

He won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2024, which took him to third place in the FedEx Cup standings and 10th in the world rankings. During his victory at Pebble Beach he recorded a round of 60.

He has made 150 starts on the PGA Tour - apart from his wins, he has two runner-up finishes and two third places as well as nine top fives and 19 top 10s. 

He averages 307.1 yards from the tee and hits 50.44% of fairways. He finds 70.92% of greens in regulation, gets up and down from the sand 67.74% of the time and averages 28.53 putts per round. His scoring averages his 68.71 and averages 4.71 birdies per round. 

Will Zalatoris is another who will have an eye on Augusta National. First of all he will be tackling Memorial Park. It has been a long haul for Zalatoris, who missed most of 2023 after undergoing back surgery. But he finally fully fit again and has returned to the game with a new putting stroke.

He is a wonderful ball striker and has already recorded a runner-up finish at the Genesis Invitational and a fourth-place finish at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Zalatoris secured his first win on the PGA Tour when he won the FedEx St Jude Championship. He has also finished in the top 10 twice at The Masters, including a sixth-place finish in 2022, where he co-led the field in Par-4 scoring average (3.98). This will be the first time he has played at the Houston Open.

It will be fun watching Ryan Fox this week. The New Zealander, who has enjoyed tremendous success on the DP World Tour, knows only one way to play the game - and that is to attack every flag. When it comes off he is capable of tearing any golf course apart. And there are signs that he is beginning to enjoy life on the PGA Tour. Many pundits believed he would struggle but I expect him to win at some point. If he drives well he can win anywhere.

Sahith Theegala played some superb golf at Sawgrass. He only joined the PGA Tour in 2022 but already has a win, three runners-up finishes, one third, 10 top five and 17 top 10s. It is a level of consistency that challenges Scheffler in every category other than wins. He has already claimed almost $15m in prize money.

Tony Finau is one of the biggest hitters on the PGA Tour. He is one of the most naturally gifted in the game, generating huge power from a short backswing. And he won when the tournament was last staged in 2022.

Finau led or co-led after every round, and captured the fifth PGA Tour title of his career, finishing at 16 under and winning by four strokes. After winning only once in his first 188 starts on Tour, it was his third victory in just seven starts. 

“In a position to win a tournament, you want to know what you’ve got to do,” Finau said of trying to close. “It was different nerves, I’ve never been in that position before where I was that far in front. I mean, I could get used to that, that’s a nice feeling to have. But I tried to just stay present and know that there’s still a lot of golf to be played, and I thought I did a pretty good job of that.”

Tournament Winners:

It was won in 2015 by JB Holmes, in 2016 by Jim Herman, in 2017 by Russell Henley, in 2018 by Ian Poulter, in 2019 by Lanto Griffin, in 2020 by Carlos Ortiz, in 2021 by Jason Kokrak and in 2022 by Tony Finau. There was no tournament last year.

The Course:

Memorial Park underwent a major renovation programme in 2019, overseen by Tom Doak. One of the most intriguing features of the course is the state-of-the-art storm water irrigation system designed to capture and retain 80 million gallons of storm water for irrigation purposes removing the golf course's irrigation from the city's potable water system. It is a public course - locals pay just $30 for 18 holes.

Form Guide:

Scottie Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational by five shots and produced a sensational final round of 64 to win the Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass. So the only question would appear to be: who is going to finish second?

To Win:

Scottie Scheffler. Who else?

Each Way:

Will Zalatoris. Ready to win again

Each Way:

Tony Finau. Loves this track

Five to Follow:

Scottie Scheffler. Going for three on the bounce

Will Zalatoris. Fit and firing

Tony Finau. Defending champion

Sahith Theegala. Great ball striker

Wyndham Clark. World class

Five Outsiders to Watch:

Gary Woodland. Making good progress

Billy Horschel. Still looking for some confidence

Brandt Snedker. Desperately looking for something

Ryan Fox. Hugely entertaining

Kevin Kisner. Now focusing on the day job